Poi E

The record labels were not interested. Poi E had words by the Māori linguist Ngoi Pewhairangi, who wanted to give young Māori pride in their identity through a pop song, and music by Dalvanius Prime. When nobody would take it, Prime released it himself as the first single on his own Maui Records. It was sung entirely in te reo Māori by the Pātea Māori Club, whose town had just lost many of its jobs when the Pātea Freezing Works closed. The song mixed Māori chanting, poi and concert-party singing with gospel and funk, and the video added breakdancing and rapping alongside traditional garments. The idea, according to the club, was to give the hip-hop generation their language and culture through a medium they were comfortable with. It got almost no radio play and barely any commercial television, yet after a TV news story about it, Poi E went to number one in March 1984. It held the top spot for four weeks and became New Zealand's best-selling single of the year, ahead of every international act. That year the club toured Britain, playing the London Palladium and the Edinburgh Festival and giving a Royal Command Performance. Alongside Prince Tui Teka's E Ipo, also written by Pewhairangi and produced by Prime, it was among the first mainstream hits in te reo Māori. Its use in the 2010 film Boy sent it back into the top three, and it remains the only New Zealand song to chart across three decades. For many Māori it is still the anthem of a generation.