This year, IMNZ pays respect to the Patea Māori Club
for their groundbreaking single
'Poi E' released in 1983 on Maui Records.
The presentation of the Independent Music NZ Classic Record award will be at Auckland’s Q Theatre on 20th April 2021.
Patea Māori Club’s 'Poi E’ lyrics were written by te reo advocate, linguist, and composer, Ngoi Pēwhairangi (QSM) and music by Dalvanius Prime in 1983, to encourage rangatahi to be proud of being Māori. A simple song with a catchy beat sung entirely in te reo Māori 'Poi E' has become Aotearoa’s unofficial national anthem, giving pride to generations of New Zealanders.
Recorded and released in late 1983, the single spent four weeks at number 1 and a further 22 weeks in the music charts, which was unprecedented for a song in te reo Māori. As well as being a sensation in Aotearoa, the Pātea Māori Club received international recognition - touring the United Kingdom in 1984, playing at the London Palladium, the Edinburgh Festival, and giving a Royal Command Performance. Top British contemporary music magazine of the time, New Musical Express (NME), named ‘Poi E’ its Single of the Week.
This week, group member Maryanne Broughton remembers,"The release of 'Poi E' was a huge milestone for Māori music and was an extended dream of Dals’ and Aunty Ngoi's to get our language back out there, to encourage young Māori to be proud of being Māori. It actually wasn't popular with the older generation as it was not the traditional way of singing our songs but it was released at just the right moment, when young kids were learning and relating to te reo Māori via Te Kohanga Reo, and our teenagers were jumping on the break dancing craze. Singing 'Poi E' meant the kids were using our language every day."
In 2010 ‘Poi E’ was used in Taika Waititi's hit movie, Boy. This saw the song back in the New Zealand music charts. A documentary on the song was released in 2016, and in 2021 - 38 years after its release - ‘Poi E’ is officially being acknowledged as an important part of our rich musical tapestry as the recipient of the 2021 IMNZ Classic Record.