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WOMAN: Hi. I'm Aimee, and I'm 26 years old.
And I feel amazing up onstage.
I just light up. (LAUGHS)
Yeah, that's what I do. I light up.
I feel free and happy.
Like nothing's gonna go wrong once I'm on that stage.
And there's Caroline, Annika and Jackie and Michelle and me.
# Advance Australia fair. #
Singing makes me feel really joyful and really energised and happy.
It's liberating, yeah.
Singing makes me feel good inside.
One of the songs that we do is 'Hot Stuff'.
(CHUCKLES) And, um...
The first one.
We both put our arms up and go...
Oot-oot!
"Oot-oot!"
(APPLAUSE)
And that usually makes people laugh.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
NARRATOR: These young women share more than a passion for singing.
We're almost like sisters.
(LAUGHTER)
AIMEE: And we're all very good friends.
We all love to perform together. It's so special.
Aimee has been with Hot Tutti since it formed in 2010.
AIMEE: We want the same as everybody...every other woman wants.
It's about having fun and getting out there, like everybody else does.
The group is part of Tutti,
a not-for-profit South Australian organisation
giving people with learning disabilities
the chance to be trained as professional artists.
Its founder is playwright and composer Pat Rix.
We're starting to see the benefits of a program
which has given people a deep education since they've left school.
I think this kind of knowledge,
which has come through theatre, which has come through music,
and in many other ways in Tutti, through the visual arts and film,
is starting to feed into the artists
and giving them a lot of material to work with.
The excitement that this generates has created this girl group.
# I can feel with my fingers... #
Hot Tutti isn't just practising to become professional, they are professional.
And in 2012, they were hired for more than 30 shows.
It's been hard work for the group's musical director,
who's been with the girls for more than two years.
(APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING)
You can almost see their insides changing.
You can see people crying,
you can see people shocked,
and it's in those moments that I...
I'm up there accompanying them, and I look over,
and I just think, "It is my absolute honour
"to be on this stage with these world-changers."
(SINGS)
What I love is that just by writing beautiful songs
and telling their story,
these young women can change the world
in a very practical, kinetic way
by just being themselves.
(FINISHES SINGING)
(APPLAUSE)
Hot Tutti offers something the Disability Discrimination Act calls for -
meaningful employment, rather than sheltered workshop jobs.
If I wasn't at Tutti, I'd be, like, putting bolts in plastic bags
or some equally soul-destroying job like that.
Today is anything but mundane.
They're heading into the studio to start working on Hot Tutti's very first album.
-Hey, Pat. -How are you?
Good to see you.
In 10 years,
I see Hot Tutti having made real waves around the world.
# You will hear it in my voice
# You'll see it in my eyes. #
-Well done, girls! Whoo! -Whoo!
Whoo! Yeah!
Whoo!