Aotearoa is invited to celebrate waiata reo Māori on Thursday 19 May for a special live streamed showcase featuring some of our top songwriters: Anna Coddington, Louis Baker, Georgia Lines, Hāni Dread... and many more! The concert will be live streamed across supporting organisations on YouTube.
Following the establishment of Waiata Anthems in 2020, an industry-wide initiative to highlight waiata reo Māori, our music industry has seen a huge influx of bilingual music releases making a mark nationwide and sparking interest overseas.
In September 2021, Waiata Anthems Week was officially launched including a specially curated marketing campaign to highlight new recordings of waiata reo Māori and honouring past and present champions of te reo Māori. That same month the Official New Zealand Music Charts were dominated by bilingual waiata and sixteen of the waiata featured on the Hot 20 Singles Chart were bilingual tracks, with Six60’s Pepeha taking #1 spot for multiple weeks.
East Coast rangatahi group Ka Hao and bilingual recording artist Rob Ruha made waves on TikTok with their single ‘35’ quickly exploding on the platform’s Trending Chart. The waiata also reached #1 on the Hot 20 Singles Chart and continues to be a crowd favourite!
The list goes on for bilingual music wins in Aotearoa including streaming numbers reaching an all-time high, making this showcase that much more special for our music community.
The concert will take place at a private event in Tāmaki Makaurau and will be live-streamed across supporting organisation’s YouTube channels: Te Māngai Pāho, NZ On Air, APRA AMCOS NZ, and NZ Music Commission.
We will see performances from Anna Coddington, Chad Chambers, Georgia Lines, Huia, Kings, Louis Baker, Hina, Hāni Dread, Mohi, and Rei.
Join us online Thursday 19 May at 7pm