Hailing from Tāmaki Makaurau, Ra Charmian is a favourite of mine in her diversity of styles that she manages to own and make hers. Ra delivers this newest single Hine Ruhi in Te Reo, something I’m always a fan of, and I’ll tell you about it now.

As the focus single from new album Waiata Wairua, this is a lively, pop-friendly waiata that absolutely drips with summer vibes. It’s a warm, commercially viable melody, delivered with the characteristic power and spirit I find synonymous with this vocalist. We’ve got a great band, delivering a blend of guitars, brass, keys, and an outrageously tight rhythm section giving us happiness with tempo. Indeed a slice of heaven. I like what I did there – glad I haven’t lost my talent for dropping cheese into these reviews.

I’ve actually spent a number of weeks living close to where these guys live, which is Titirangi – itself too far west to be called Westieville! Lovely setting, so much native bush and unspoiled forest as you head out towards a certain famous beach. The YouTube video shows off a lot of the area (I think it’s that area, anyway!) as well as some gorgeous imagery of whanau sharing experiences on the Marae, such as hangi (I am drooling at the thought), waiata time and more) as well as a number of live performance scenes. No flashy nonsense, nicely set, well done with the camerawork. Nicely done Hayden.

The track is about people, places, moments in time, from across Aotearoa that are special to Ra and Hayden. The composition and instrumentation are warm and full of heart, and capped off with a professional, emotive vocal performance. As mentioned, it’s in Te Reo, which I’m thrilled at. I’ve never hidden my support for performance in Indigenous tongues, and at this particular point in Aotearoa’s societal development, we need to nurture and safeguard this Taonga.

A surefire hit on the likes of Mai FM, ZM, Whakaata Māori, Niu FM and on and on, I hope Juice picks it up too. This portrays our Māori whanau’s culture and welcoming ways in audio-visual, so I also hope anyone following this site from overseas gets to have a look and maybe decides to pay us a visit down here in the South Pacific. If you do, Kia Ora – you are most welcome!

Wonderful ambassador for our Islands. Check out the new album – and if you’re in Auckland on 5th October go check out their show at Big Fan! Tickets from Under The Radar. Summer’s definitely on the way when music like this comes out.

Congrats to Ra and Hayden on the new bub, making their debut in the vid! x