Do we like Tones and I?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean harm record and real fundraising for bushfire recovery, held back by a thin record on her views and an unresolved tax claim.
Tones and I is Toni Watson, a busker turned global pop act whose hit Dance Monkey went everywhere. She has talked about her busking roots and wanting to keep her live shows intimate, and about doing things on her own terms rather than leaning on collaborators early on.
The latest stoush is footy-shaped. NRL chief Peter V'landys said talks about her headlining the grand final pre-game show collapsed, apparently because she wouldn't perform the song, while her management said she had prior commitments and was only approached in early September. She then posted footage of herself doing Dance Monkey at the Deni Ute Muster, captioned with a cheeky handshake.
On the harm test, we came up empty in a good way. Searches for anything she has said or done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate turned up nothing harmful, and no sign of her platforming anyone who does. That is also a gap: she doesn't say much publicly on those topics, so this is an absence of red flags, not a ringing endorsement.
The one cloud is money. The Herald Sun and Channel 7 reportedly said the Australian Taxation Office filed a claim in Victoria's County Court in April 2026 to recover about $432,000 from Watson and her company, tied to BAS provisions and administrative penalties. No public response from her was reported, and we found no outcome, so it's an unresolved civil claim, not a finding of anything.
The good stuff is concrete. In March 2026 she played a sold-out bushfire recovery concert at Longwood, Victoria, which raised more than $190,000 for the Strathbogie Disaster Relief Fund. Back in 2020 she announced a Melbourne benefit show with all ticket sales going to the Red Cross, the CFA and the NSW RFS.
She's also on a roll professionally: in 2026 she joined The Voice Australia as a fifth coach, with a secret twist on the panel. She told Variety she grew up watching the show and was thrilled to get her own red chair.