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"Poi E" is a
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
number-one hit song by the group
Pātea Māori Club Pātea Māori Club is a New Zealand cultural group and performance act formed in the South Taranaki District, South Taranaki town of Patea, Pātea in 1967 as the Pātea Methodist Māori Club. In 1983, the group began to release Māori language, ...
off the album of the same name. Released in 1984, the song was sung entirely in the
Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...
and featured a blend of Māori cultural practices in the song and accompanying music video, including Māori
chanting A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of n ...
, poi dancing, and the wearing of traditional Māori (garments). The song reached No 1 in New Zealand in each of the following 3 decades.Mitchell, Tony. "Kia Kaha! (Be Strong!): Maori and Pacific Islander Hip-hop in Aotearoa-New Zealand." In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, ed. Tony Mitchell, 280-305. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. The song topped the New Zealand pop charts for four weeks and also became the biggest seller in New Zealand for 1984, "outselling all international recording artists.""The History." accessed 11 April 2008
Poi-E home page
.
Today the song maintains its status as a
cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
classic in non-Māori New Zealand, as the group behind it, Patea Maori Club, was a
one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...
. However, for Māori, the song is much more important, as it became "the anthem of a new generation", the generation known as the " hip-hop generation".


Background

The song was written by Māori linguist
Ngoi Pēwhairangi Te Kumeroa "Ngoingoi" Pēwhairangi (29 December 1921 – 29 January 1985) was a prominent teacher of, and advocate for, Māori language and culture, and the composer of many songs, including ''Poi E''. She spearheaded the Māori Renaissance in ...
; the music was scored by
Dalvanius Prime Maui Dalvanius Prime (16 January 1948 – 3 October 2002) was a New Zealand entertainer and songwriter. His career spanned 30 years. He mentored many of New Zealand's Māori performers, and was a vocal and forthright supporter of Māori culture ...
. Pēwhairangi's intent in writing the song in such a way was to promote Māori ethnic pride among young Māori people in a popular format. The two faced indifference from record labels, so Prime produced the song and album under his self-made label, Maui Records. The single was the first release on Maui, which was distributed by
WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...
. Without radio play and barely any commercial TV airing, a TV news story is credited with shooting the song up to #1 on New Zealand charts in March 1984. Its popularity that same year grew further when it was well received by
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
listeners as the Pātea Māori Club toured the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, playing at the
London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 an ...
and the
Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...
, as well as giving a
Royal Command Performance A Royal Command Performance is any performance by actors or musicians that occurs at the direction or request of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Although English monarchs have long sponsored their own theatrical companies and commis ...
. "Poi E" alongside " E Ipo" (1982) by
Prince Tui Teka Tumanako "Tui" Teka (8 March 193723 January 1985), better known by his stage names Tui Latui or Prince Tui Teka was a Māori singer and actor. Teka was a member of the Maori Volcanics Showband before having a successful solo career. Career Te ...
(similarly written by Pēwhairangi and produced by Prime) were the first widely successful songs sung in Te Reo Māori in mainstream music, and had a great impact on the promotion of Te Reo and Māori culture in New Zealand. It briefly re-entered the New Zealand charts in 2009 following its use in a Vodafone promotion. It also made a comeback in 2010 by reaching the New Zealand Top 20 after being featured in the successful New Zealand comedy film ''Boy''. On May 24 that year it reached No.3. "Poi E" is the only New Zealand song to chart over three decades.


Hip-hop

In addition to the Māori cultural influences in the music video for the song, there are interesting influences from hip-hop culture present in the video. Among the most obvious are
rapping Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
and
breakdancing Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...
, and the song itself "combined traditional Māori vocals and show-band and concert-party idioms with
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
and
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
", two of hip-hop's own influences as major African-American musical genres. Hip-hop was mixed with the traditional Māori
chanting A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of n ...
and cultural music because the Pātea Māori Club wanted to give the younger hip-hop generation "their language and culture through the medium they were comfortable with", that medium being hip-hop. At the same time as it was helping to teach the children about Māori culture, hip-hop also "provided Māori youth in particular with a viable substitute for their own culture." Hip hop already had a hold on the people of New Zealand and the Māori in particular, and Poi-E reinforced it and Māori hip-hop crews continued springing up throughout New Zealand.


Alternative version

The original version of the song without hip hop elements added was judged first equal in the poi song category at the 1983 Polynesian festival in Auckland.


In popular culture

In July 2016, a film about the song, ''Poi E: The Story of Our Song'', premiered at the
New Zealand International Film Festival New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
.


Chart positions


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Personnel

*
Dalvanius Prime Maui Dalvanius Prime (16 January 1948 – 3 October 2002) was a New Zealand entertainer and songwriter. His career spanned 30 years. He mentored many of New Zealand's Māori performers, and was a vocal and forthright supporter of Māori culture ...
  - arrangement, producer * Alastair Riddell – electronic drums * Fred Faleauto – timbales * Tama Renata – electronic drums, guitar *David Hurley – engineer, co-producer


References


External links


Radio interview with Syd and Hui from Patea Maori Club
RadioLIVE Radio Live (stylised as Radio LIVE) was a nationwide Auckland-based New Zealand talkback, news and sport radio network owned and operated by MediaWorks New Zealand. It was formed by the 2005 split of talk and racing network Radio Pacific into a ...

Poi E video
from Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision (was the New Zealand Film Archive) {{Authority control APRA Award winners New Zealand songs 1984 singles Māori music Number-one singles in New Zealand 1984 songs Māori-language songs Pātea Māori Club songs Songs written by Ngoi Pēwhairangi Song recordings produced by Dalvanius Prime