Why waiata reo Ma¯ ori have never been more popular

In a week that saw new releases from ABBA and Drake, Alex Behan investigates why the spotlight has instead shone on te reo anthems.

Something mildly remarkable and totally rawe (excellent) just happened. Leading up to our annual Te Wiki o te Reo Ma¯ ori (Ma¯ ori Language Week), the music charts made a definitive statement about how we feel about waiata reo (songs sung in Ma¯ ori). Waiata reo made up 8.71 per cent of all music streamed on Spotify and Apple Music in Aotearoa, an all- time high totalling roughly 1.3 million streams.

In a week that saw new releases from ABBA (I know) and Drake (I know, I know), there were eight new waiata reo in the Waiata Takitahi, Wera Rawe 40 (Hot 40 Singles Chart), including two in the Top 10.

These massive victories, these huge milestones seem to come from nowhere, but are the result of long periods of slow change. First, we had to get over our cultural cringe. That seems a long time ago, but, in reality, it wasn’t. New Zealand music was barely present in the mainstream 25 years ago, let alone te reo Ma¯ ori.

There’s been the odd breakout hit. Poi E, E Ipo and E Tu spring to mind, but they were outliers, one-offs. In recent years, as te reo has seeped into mainstream, musicians have felt more confident, more passionate about giving te reo a go.

In 2019, Waiata Anthems was a huge leap forward. Aotearoa’s best and brightest musicians were invited to translate their songs with integrity and without fear. It was not only empowering, it was popular.

More than a dozen new songs were added to the Waiata Anthems playlist this year and, in a clever move, they were added before Te Wiki o te Reo Ma¯ ori. It meant the data can’t be attributed to ‘‘extra effort’’ made by media.

The truly wonderful thing about these numbers is they can’t be written off as some kind of PR stunt. No amount of press releases can stream a million songs and no-one on a communications salary cares enough to organise mass gaming of the system. No, this happened because, wait for it, there is genuine, quantifiable, appetite.

It means radio, record companies, streaming services and the industry at large have to take note. If the population of Aotearoa is up for almost 10 per cent of its musical diet in Ma¯ ori, any remaining hesitancy towards playing waiata reo on mainstream must evaporate.

So, what’s good? Well the big one is Six60 Pepeha. Another Six60 stroke of genius. They took the traditional formal introduction, injected it with universal themes like mana and aroha, stuck a raise-the-hair-onyour-arms chord progression behind it and elevated it to what will be a crowd sing-along favourite at their annual stadium shows. Pepeha has gone mainstream.

Over on the East Coast, Rob Ruha always has fingers in new, interesting pies. He’s working with Ka Hao, a tira waiata (choir) of 24 local rangatahi. Their debut album One Tira One Voice was released on Thursday and its lead song, 35, was the week’s fastestrising local release based on sales, streams and radio play. 35 references the road less travelled, from O¯ po¯ tiki to Tu¯ ranga nui a Kiwa (Gisborne), and, in the accompanying video, the kids all proudly sport hoodies with the highways logo. The song is pure joy and an absolute earworm.

Stan Walker has an entire reo album Te Arohanui on the way and melted hearts when he released Matemateaone complete with wedding video.

A slick slice of summer pop, He Aroha Hinemoa (Love on the Run) from Sons Of Zion, featuring Jackson Owens is running hot in the charts also, and Rei repeated his clever trick with Oma Ra¯ peti by updating

E Papa Waiari in Hoki Mai/Come Back. Everything Rei touches is impressive.

Moana & The Tribe made the ethereal A¯ io Ana, with lyrics from Scotty Morrison and music from Paddy Free (Pitch Black); Kings teamed up with Hamo Dell for Ora Ai; Louis Baker dropped Te Utu o Te Aroha and there are many, many more.

There are also new translated versions added to the Waiata Anthems collection too. Sir Dave turned Slice of Heaven into Hine Ruhi; the very impressive Muroki made Waves into Rehurehu; Che Fu gave Fade Away a reo makeover, and Troy Kingi gave the otherworldly majesty of Aztecknowledgey a deeper meaning. Again, this is a mere fragment of the total list.

Then there’s the North Shore elephant in the room. Lorde released Te Ao Marama, five songs from her Solar Power album translated in te reo. That’s an international platform te reo Ma¯ ori has never been exposed to.

At the time of writing, both Six60 and Stan Walker have waiata reo in YouTube’s Top 10 trending music videos. I’ve never seen that before. Like everyone keeps saying, we live in unprecedented times.