For the second week in a row, ABC’s live Monday night staple Q&A has proved to be a cultural flashpoint for Australia. We needn’t remind you of the week-long controversy that erupted after truck driver Duncan Storrar questioned the government’s tax breaks strategy.

This time, however, everyone’s still talking about “last night’s Q&A“, only for far more positive and refreshingly non-political reasons. If you’ve checked Facebook this morning, you’ve likely already seen footage of a performance by Kate Tempest which closed last night’s show.

The London-born rapper, poet, and spoken-word performer was one of a round of guests selected from this year’s Sydney Writers Festival lineup, which also included author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, MSF co-founder Jean-Christophe Rufin, philosopher Julian Baggini, and Middle East expert Emma Sky.

The evening’s discussion touched on many topics, including radical Islam, freedom of speech, and the notion of free will, but it was Tempest’s performance at the end of the show that kept viewers glued to their TVs (and their Twitter accounts) as the show came to a close.

As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, Tempest performed her rousing poem ‘Progress’, which touches on themes like religion, the media, self image, and consumerism: “Yes the world is your playground / Go and get your kicks / As long as you’re not poor or ugly or sick“.

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