‘Bluey’ theme song: who wrote the most popular kids TV tune?

Bluey, created and written by Joe Brumm, had its first season premiere on ABC Kids in 2018, following the titular, anthropomorphic Blue Heeler puppy and her family. 

Two more seasons have since been broadcast, and the show has gone on to be released internationally on Disney+.

The show’s theme song garners a lot of attention on account of how popular it is with its young viewers. 

The series has also spawned two soundtracks. ‘Bluey: Dance Mode!’ was released in 2023 and was a follow up to ‘Bluey: The Soundtrack’, Bush’s soundtrack album for the series’ first season, which was released in early 2021. 

The soundtrack debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart that February, making it the first children’s album to reach the top of the charts in Australia. The same year, it won Best Children’s Album at the 2021 ARIA Music Awards.

Who wrote the most popular kids TV tune?

The composer of the theme tune – and the music throughout Bluey – is Joff Bush and he is a Brisbane-based musician.

He was asked to score the tune for the show by executive producer Daley Pearson. The pair were longtime friends and classmates at Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School – they had also been collaborating since they were teenagers.

However, Bush nearly turned down the role after not being keen initially on making music for a show aimed at pre-schoolers.

As per Romper, this changed once he met series creator Brumm and found himself getting emotional at the first few episodes.

He told the publication: “I was just in tears,” he says. “I was like, ‘Well, I have to do this now.’”

Speaking about his process, he added: “I love novelty and the reason why Bluey keeps me going so much is that we get to play with so many different types of music and novel ideas and different ways of, it keeps me really excited to make it. Every episode we get to start from scratch and try and create a whole different world. But yeah, which in terms of my sleep patterns was a very bad decision. In terms of satisfaction, it’s great.”
Bush’s work on the episodes ‘Cricket’ and ‘Dance Mode’ won the Music for Screen Award and the Children’s Music Award at the Queensland Music Awards this year.