New Zealand

The umbrella Māori word for traditional song is waiata. It covers everything from waiata tawhito (ancient chants and laments) and karakia (incantations) through to the lighter waiata-ā-ringa with hand actions that audiences will recognise from kapa haka performances. Pre-colonial Māori music was vocal and percussive, with taonga pūoro (treasured instruments) such as the kōauau flute and the pūtātara conch shell carrying ceremonial roles.

Lorde is the most internationally successful New Zealand pop artist of all time, with her 2013 single Royals topping charts around the world. Other major exports include Crowded House and the Finn brothers, the operatic soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Bic Runga, and OMC's How Bizarre, which reached number one in Australia, Canada, and Ireland in 1995. Marlon Williams, Aldous Harding, and Fat Freddy's Drop have built substantial European followings since the 2010s.

The Dunedin Sound was the loose, jangling, melody-first guitar pop made in Dunedin in the 1980s by bands on Flying Nun Records, especially the Clean, the Chills, the Verlaines, the Bats, and Sneaky Feelings. It became one of the most influential underground sounds of the decade and was directly cited by Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Belle and Sebastian as a touchstone.

Te reo Māori has been central to New Zealand pop since Moana and the Moahunters' 1992 album Tahi. Stan Walker's 2023 single I AM, TEEKS's 2021 single Younger, Six60's Pepeha, and Marlon Williams's 2024 album Te Whare Tīwekaweka (recorded entirely in te reo) have brought Māori-language song to a new mainstream audience. Public broadcaster RNZ now mandates a minimum of Māori-language music airplay on its national stations.

Last reviewed: 2026-05

Lorde's Royals (2013) is the most globally successful, having topped the Billboard Hot 100 and won two Grammys. Domestically, Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over (1986) remains the country's defining pop ballad, while Herbs' 1982 French Letter is its most important political anthem. Gesang's 1940 Indonesian song Bengawan Solo is widely sung in Aotearoa but is not actually a New Zealand work; for that role, Pōkarekare Ana, an early 20th-century Māori love song, is the closest equivalent.