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The music of Niue has a long history. Niue is a Polynesian island in the South Pacific. Though independent, it is in free association with New Zealand.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2023) |
The music of Niue has a long history. Niue is a Polynesian island in the South Pacific. Though independent, it is in free association with New Zealand.
The Niue culture and tradition is also rich in music. However, most of the very traditional Niuean songs are sung without the use of any musical instruments. The only instrument that is used for the very traditional dances is a wooden drum known in Niuean as palau or nafa, made out of a carved trunk of the selie tree. The use of the instrument is mainly to provide a beat for the dances.
The Tā Mē is a traditional group performance, celebrating significant occasions such as, the opening of a new building or facility, weddings, birthdays, launches, milestones and fundraising events. It involves both men and women singing and dancing to Niuean songs. This is often accompanied by musical instruments like the guitar, ukulele and sometimes a traditionally-crafted bass drum. [1]
Typically, there are multiple items during a Tā Mē and the dance actions are generally choreographed to match the words of the songs. [2] The songs performed often follow familiar Niuean and Pacific melodies, and some lyrics are customised to fit the occasion.
Women usually perform seated, facing the audience, while the men perform while standing behind them. These positions are not a reflection of social status, as men and women hold equal standing in Niuean culture.
As Niue modernized, its music began to be influenced by other cultures. Manaia Studio and the Niue Broadcasting Corporation are the only recording studios on the island. There are many Niue artists who have made it to the top.
Pauly Fuemana of OMC (Otara's Millionaires Club) is half Niuean and half Māori, and became the first New Zealander to reach top of the charts in 12 countries with his hit "How Bizarre". The record sold over 3 million albums which made him the most successful Pacific music artist ever. The Fuemana Family is the most successful Pacific family with over 12 NZ music awards between.
Musician Che Fu is very popular, and has won several Tui Awards, a New Zealand music award. This is an enormous achievement for a country with only a few thousand people, as other countries bigger than Niue have yet to reach those heights conquered by these Niuean artists. His father, Tigilau Ness, is also a highly regarded artist who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Pacific Music Awards.
The Kilakokonut Krew group and record label is also made up of Niuean artists Vela Manusaute and Glen Jackson. The migration of Niueans to New Zealand also make greater influences on Niuean music. There are up-and-coming artists, such as MC Kava, who now sing in contemporary styles of music like rap, hip-hop and reggae.
There are also many Niuean artists who have produced records in Niuean language. Fuata Muta was the first Niuean group to play and record their own music albums. From the actual playing of the instruments to the engineering and mixing the songs at one of Sydney's largest recording studios in 1985 and 1986. Church choirs are also common. However, they sing traditional hymns with no instrumental accompaniment at all.
Niueans are talented people who have charted and Include Harry Uasi Leki who was originally from the village of Hakupu, who was in a band in the 1960s called "Simple Image" , which had four chart topping hits including "Spinning Spinning Spinning". Feau Halatau from the village of Hakupu, was a founding member and drummer of The Radars. He was known to be partially blind and his group won a TVNZ Music award in the 1980s. Tyree Tautogia was part of the NZ hip hop group called Smashproof, he is also a person of Niuean ancestry and descent. Tony Fuemana aka OMC, a Niuean descendant from the village of Mutalau topped the charts in 12 countries and won a few awards in New Zealand. Che Fu Ness topped the charts also and has won a few awards in New Zealand. Tony T aka Tony Nogotautama from the village of Hakupu, was part of the famous band Ardijah and D - Faction, which released the popular cover "Down in the Boondocks" .
Three Niuean LPs have been released on vinyl which were pressed when Niueans travelled for the South Pacific Arts Festivals in Suva & Rotorua. Many Niuean cassette tapes and CDs have been produced and made over the years in Australia, New Zealand and Niue.
Victa Talima released a cassette tape in Sydney, Australia. It was titled "Neva" and released in 1997. It included his cult classic remake of Titania Talagi's hit "Koe Fisi Siale" and is popular among Niueans in the world. He released two CDs, one called "Hihina Mata" (2000) and "Vela" (2006) to moderate success with some popular tunes. His song "Tolitoli" from the Hihina Mata album was one of the first Niuean songs to be banned from the Niuean radio station BCN, for its explicit lyrics.
Niue had a recording studio called Manaia Studios, which produced a few artists famous to Niueans. This included: Malakava Sisters (daughters of Titania and Matalose Talagi), they sang the cult classic "Tama Afine Niue" and covered popular hits "Koe Auro Moe Alio"; Teuila and Frances (sung "Fakatai a Susana"); Sionepaea Kumitau (sung "Haku Loto Paiki" and "Fano Au He Tau"); Bommo & Co (Kimray Vaha); Falala Niue (a compilation of songs for the 1999 Miss Niue pageant, including popular hits "Alito Mata He Fuata". This was sung by Coral Pasisi & Jackson Hekesi. Composed for Miss Fiafia Rex, written by Tagaloa Rex Cooper.); "Falala Mai Fineone" sung by the Hakupu Youth; and Tomanogi (husband and wife duo Tom and Ligimanogi Misikea, composer of the popular Huvalu Forest Conservation party song "Ta Kalali").
Ta Kalali has been covered a few times. Jolly Talima & The Talima Band covered this song for the Çyclone Heta album. Jackson Hekesi (J'Love) covered this song for his 'Blast from the Past' album.
Napoleon Manetoa & The Lost Liku Lovers, released the CD titled 'Neva'. The album contained many known hits and a few new songs never heard before. It included the tracks Pa pa Seliga, Ko E Kufani, Kua Amanaki and many more.
Other Niuean groups or artists to release music are Kuma Mo Feke, Mefi Fifita, Malcolm Lakatani, Sheelagh Cooper, James Viliua, Tina Tuibenau, Brad Etuata, Annette Posimani, Jayjay Poumale.
Hools released music under the artist name "Tommy Nee", before changing his name. Hools launched his own music platform, Banana Boat Records (BBR) in 2024. [3]
Niue is a self-governing island country in free association with New Zealand. It is situated in the South Pacific Ocean and is part of Polynesia, and predominantly inhabited by Polynesians. The island is commonly referred to as "The Rock", which comes from the traditional name "Rock of Polynesia".
The music of New Zealand has been influenced by a number of traditions, including Māori music, the music introduced by European settlers during the nineteenth century, and a variety of styles imported during the twentieth century, including blues, jazz, country, rock and roll, reggae, and hip hop, with many of these genres given a unique New Zealand interpretation.
Mititaiagimene Young Vivian is a Niuean politician and diplomat, who served as Premier of Niue twice, the first time from December 1992 to March 1993 following the death of Sir Robert Rex, and the second from 2002 to 2008. He also served as a Cabinet Minister multiple times, first as Minister of Education, Economic Development and Agriculture and later as Minister of Finance under Robert Rex, and in the Cabinet of Sani Lakatani. From 1979 to 1982 he served as Secretary-General of the South Pacific Commission.
Niuean is a Polynesian language, belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian languages. It is most closely related to Tongan and slightly more distantly to other Polynesian languages such as Māori, Samoan, and Hawaiian. Together, Tongan and Niuean form the Tongic subgroup of the Polynesian languages. Niuean also has a number of influences from Samoan and Eastern Polynesian languages.
OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, were a New Zealand music group, then duo, with vocalist Pauly Fuemana later becoming the sole member. OMC was best known for the 1995 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealander songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association. The full name of the band is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ōtara's status as one of the poorest suburbs of Auckland.
Che Kuo Eruera Ness, better known by his stage name Che Fu, is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and producer. A founding member of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zealand and internationally. Che Fu is considered a pioneer of Hip hop and Pasifika music in New Zealand.
New Zealand hip hop derives from the wider hip hop cultural movement originating amongst African Americans in the United States. Like the parent movement, New Zealand hip hop consists of four parts: rapping, DJing, graffiti art and breakdancing. The first element of hip hop to reach New Zealand was breakdancing, which gained notoriety after the release of the 1979 movie The Warriors. The first hip hop hit single, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, became a hit in New Zealand when it was released there in 1980, a year after it was released in the United States. By the middle of the 1980s, breakdancing and graffiti art were established in urban areas like Wellington and Christchurch. By the early 1990s, hip hop became a part of mainstream New Zealand culture.
Urban Pasifika is a New Zealand subgenre of hip hop, that developed primarily among Pasifika New Zealanders in South Auckland. Drawn from alternative hip hop and R&B influences, it was quickly blended with Pacific Island or Māori instrumentation and traditional songwriting and singing and rapping in a variety of Polynesian languages, such as Māori, Samoan, Niuean and Tongan. The genre's genesis in the 1980s blossomed into a unique, globally enrapturing cultural scene in its homeland of Auckland, especially in the next decade. Urban Pasifika is one of the most popular music genres to arise from New Zealand, and helped cement Auckland's reputation on the world stage as a major cultural centre, and the most ethnically Polynesian city in the world.
"Ko e Iki he Lagi", also titled in English as "Lord in heaven, Thou art merciful", is the national anthem of Niue. It was adopted in 1974, when Niue became a self-governing state within the realm of New Zealand.
Paul Lawrence Fuemana was a New Zealand singer, songwriter and musician from Auckland. One of the first globally successful pioneers of his country's unique style of hip-hop, Fuemana was one of New Zealand's greatest popular music icons of the 1990s.
Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation is a 1994 New Zealand hip hop and R&B compilation album. It was released in New Zealand by Second Nature Records and in Australia by Volition Records, and later rereleased in New Zealand by Huh! Records in 2000 and then on vinyl for the first time on 26 May 2023, again on Huh! Records. Proud has been described as "one of the most important NZ releases in the past decades" by New Zealand music industry figure Simon Grigg.
Mutalau is one of the fourteen villages of Niue. Its population at the 2022 census was 77, down from 98 in 2017.
Deepgrooves was an Auckland, New Zealand-based independent record label formed in 1991 by Bill Lattimer, Mark Tierney and Kane Massey. Tierney left the label eighteen months after the initial release and Lattimer followed two months later. Massey continued with the label for approximately ten years working as producer or executive producer on over 20 albums. Deepgrooves is widely seen as being one of the labels at the forefront of the birth of New Zealand's modern music industry in the early 1990s.
The Pacific Music Awards are an annual New Zealand music award ceremony since 2005 that honours excellence in Pacific music in New Zealand. The awards honour musicians who primarily work in the Pacific Island style of music from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau or Tuvalu, and also in urban and gospel genre categories.
Philip Fuemana was a New Zealand musician. Affectionately known as "the Godfather of South Auckland", he was highly regarded for his work in South Auckland in establishing the Urban Pasifika sound, founding Urban Pacifika Records in 1996 with Moizna, AKA Brown, Lost Tribe, and Dei Hamo.
The Arts Pasifika Awards celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand. The annual awards are administered by Creative New Zealand and are the only national awards for Pasifika artists across all artforms.
Dianna Fuemana is a New Zealand writer, director and performer. She writes for theatre and screen. Her solo play Mapaki was the first that brought a New Zealand-born Niue perspective to the professional stage. In 2008 Fuemana won the Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award, at the Creative New Zealand Pasifika Arts Award. Fuemana was one of nine women writer-directors of the 2019 feature film Vai.
"On the Run" is a song by Niuean-New Zealand singer-songwriter Pauly Fuemana, as part of his music project OMC, short for Otara Millionaires Club. One of OMC's most successful singles other than their worldwide smash hit, "How Bizarre", it received high acclaim, and was considered the stand out of the album, from which it came. The song reached number 56 in the United Kingdom, number 30 in New Zealand, and number 82 in Germany.
Maisey Rika is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and composer, performing in both English and Māori. Her five original albums have each reached the Top 40 in the Official New Zealand Music Chart. She was named an Arts Foundation Laureate in 2021, has received awards at the Waiata Māori Music Awards and APRA Awards, including APRA Best Māori Songwriter in 2010 and 2013, and has twice won Best Māori Language Album at the NZ Music Awards.
Falepipi he Mafola is a Niuean handicrafts group based in New Zealand.