Pop Idol Benee Voice of Pandemic Generation
Fresh off a world tour, in an interview with Dazed magazine, New Zealand singer Benee, 22, opens up about her viral rise to fame on TikTok, writing about Gen Z anxieties via her 2022…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Washington D.C. Out in Numbers for Aldous Harding
New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, who is currently on tour in the United States, performed songs from her latest album Warm Chris, to a capacity crowd at Washington D.C.’s Miracle Theatre. The show is…
Country Queen Tami Neilson at Her Imperious Best
“She’s laden with every music award her adopted homeland New Zealand can muster, but the queen of Kiwi country deserves a wider audience,” The Observer’s Neil Spencer writes in a review…
Emotional Homecoming for Tami Neilson
Canada-born, New Zealand-based singer and songwriter Tami Neilson is back in Ontario to tour new album Kingmaker, her first visit since the pandemic began. She talks to Toronto Star journalist Nick Krewen about being…
Looking at the Origins of Shanty The Wellerman
The sea ballad, “The Wellerman”, the meaning of which is both curious and historical, was born in New Zealand 150 years ago. Jacob Uitti investigates its catchy origins for American Songwriter magazine. “Known as ‘Soon…
London-Based Finnegan Tui on His Unique Sound
New Zealand singer-songwriter and producer Finnegan Tui discusses his new nature-inspired EP Zephyr and how he developed his unique sound with Wonderland magazine journalist Britany Josephs. “ a kind of meditation where I am…
High Praise for Lorde’s London Night Out
Lorde is Kitty Empire’s ‘Artist of the Week’, The Guardian reviewer deeming the pop singer’s sold-out Alexandra Palace concert a “magnificent night out”. “By turns tearful and rocking out, the New Zealand star is on…
Peter Jackson Has Hand in Beatles Duet
Paul McCartney and his late Beatles songwriting and singing partner John Lennon haven’t sung together in 53 years, but thanks to New Zealand film director Peter Jackson, they got the next best thing recently…
Michael Braithwaite Builds Story of Military Tattoo
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has revealed it wants to attract more local audiences to and transform “elitist” perceptions under a new direction for the annual cultural showpiece, arts journalist Brian Ferguson reports for…
How Chelsea Jade Joined a Dazzling Constellation
With her second album Soft Spot released, Chelsea Jade, 32, is firmly established as a bright star in a constellation of dazzling New Zealand musicians chasing pop careers far from home, Cat Woods reports…
In San Francisco Lorde Shines Like the Sun
It’s been nearly a decade since New Zealand pop star Lorde rocketed to stardom at the age of 16, propelled initially by the chart-topping single “Royals” and then a steady stream of other terrific…
Singer-Songwriter Emma G Specialises in Empowerment
When Covid-19 closed venues and cancelled concerts, Waikato-born Emma Ghaemmaghamy, like many of her peers, took to new avenues to connect with audiences, including live-streaming and podcasting, Chris Kelly writes in a story for…
Joel Little’s Big Fan a Gift to the Music Industry
Walk into the unembellished black building tucked away in Morningside, Auckland, later this year and there’s no telling what musical superstars one might find, Leena Tailor writes in an exclusive story for Variety. The…
Star of 32 Sounds is Composer Annea Lockwood
New Zealand-born composer and academic musician Annea Lockwood features in American filmmaker Sam Green’s documentary about the physics and emotions attached to sound. The film, called 32 Sounds, recently screened at the Brooklyn Academy…
Aldous Harding’s Latest a NY Times Critic’s Pick
“On her fourth album, Warm Chris, the New Zealand singer and songwriter delivers unpredictable but enchanting vocals and enigmatic lyrics that revel in simplicity,” Lindsay Zoladz writes in a music review for…
Solar Power the Best Song in the World
Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’ has won Best Song In The World at the BandLab NME Awards 2022, with the title track of the New Zealand pop star’s latest album, beating nine other nominated songs by…
Lychee a Mark of Benee’s Distinct Voice
“Where 2020 debut album Hey U X saw Benee gather an impressive guest list (Lily Allen, Gus Dapperton, Bakar) to pepper her bedroom pop with outside influences, the seven-track Lychee sees the New Zealander…
Will the Real Aldous Harding Please Stand Up?
New Zealander Aldous Harding remains in an off-kilter space throughout Warm Chris, her third collaboration with producer John Parish, who’s worked alongside PJ Harvey and Jenny Hval, among others, Madison Bloom writes for online…
US Shows for Auckland band The Beths
As The Beths make their way across the United States for a sold-out gig in Boston, it’s a good time to celebrate a strange band on a normal rock ’n’ roll tour. Fronted by…
Gang of Youths Bassist Max Dunn on the Bigtime
Music magazine NME sits down with one of Australia’s biggest bands, Gang of Youths, in their adopted home of London to talk fame, grief and their powerful new album Angel In Realtime. In the…
Leave No Girl Behind Sings Kimbra in Campaign
Grammy award-winning artist, New Zealand-born New York-based Kimbra, has released an original song to launch the Leave No Girl Behind initiative with the not-for-profit So They Can, Leah Rodriguez writes in a story…
Finnegan Tui Releases a Reflection of Darkness
New Zealand-born multi-instrumentalist and producer Finnegan Tui “has released a haunting electronica ballad, ‘Spring’, describing the search for hope at the darkest time of year,” the UK’s Notion magazine reports. “Tui nurtured his own…
Gemma New a Highlight of 2021 Classical Calendar
The year in classical music was marked by challenge and determination as the pandemic continued its cultural stranglehold for much of 2021. But for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), which Wellington-born Gemma New conducted…
Podcast Explores Vibrant Roots of Our Hip Hop Scene
In podcast Aotearoa Hip Hop: The Music, The People, The History, Phil Bell aka DJ Sir-Vere talks to some of the genre’s most iconic figures and unsung heroes, exploring how music helped Māori and…
Lorde Is Learning to Put Real Life First
Lorde was thinking the other day about the strange fact that she is a pop star. ‘I wonder if part of it is because pop happened to be the medium that I was interested…
Musical in Pipeline about Surgeon Archibald McIndoe
The story of the pioneering Dunedin-born surgeon Archibald McIndoe who developed a host of new treatments during the Second World War to help heal disfigured airmen and shaped the field of plastic surgery for…
Returning to the ‘96 Crowded House Farewell
Twenty-five years ago, much-loved band Crowded House bid farewell to the world, performing a free concert at the Sydney Opera House to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. The Sydney Morning Herald has…
With the Release of Time Flies Ladyhawke Opens Up
New Zealand dance pop artist Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, talks to Belinda Quinn at NME about cancer, homophobia in the music industry and her new album Time Flies. After a long history of…
Tenor Simon O’Neill Nominated for Grammy Awards
Ashburton-born tenor Simon O’Neill, 50, has snagged two Grammy nominations for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album in Classical, Radio New Zealand reports. “I’m really thrilled, that was great news to wake up to…
Riverdale Heartthrob KJ Apa Releases Debut Album
KJ Apa’s new album Clocks, is a “folky collection that shows off his flair for breezy affairs and seriously impressive guitar skills”, Nick Levine writes for NME. It’s also a family affair. He duets with…
Shihad Endures Through Struggles and Triumphs
In a story for ABC News, Dan Condon looks back at some of the key musical and personal moments in New Zealand band Shihad’s career. In 1991, just three years after first getting together, this…
Variety’s Power of Women Issue Features Lorde
For Variety’s 2021 Power of Women issue, the magazine spoke with several women in the entertainment industry, including New Zealand pop singer Lorde, who are using their voices to benefit worthy causes. After grappling with…
Alien Weaponry Standing Up for Māori Culture
The New Zealand metal band Alien Weaponry have gone global thanks to their forthright Māori-language songs, which confront colonial history and ongoing inequality, Matt Mills writes for a feature in The Guardian. Once named “the…
Musician Kaylee Bell Lights up Times Square
New Zealand country pop artist Kaylee Bell burst into tears when she was told her face is the cover of a new global playlist, Stuff’s Esther Ashby-Coventry reports, with Bell’s image plastered on a giant…
Lorde’s Album in Te Reo Reflects Us down Here
As an accompaniment to her latest work, Lorde has taken a different kind of leap: In homage to the history and landscape Aotearoa, she recorded a set of songs in Te reo Māori. Celeste…
Behind the Blissed-Out Comeback of Lorde
With this year’s release of her third studio album, Solar Power, pop star Lorde, 24, lights up the cover of the October issue of US Vogue, in nothing but a Schiaparelli breastplate. Grammy winner Lorde, who…
Lorde’s Latest Album Too Complex to Be Basic
“Ever since people started slinging around the word basic as an insult, delights as disparate as pumpkin-spice lattes, the music of Lizzo, and sunsets have gotten a bad rap. The diss refers to pleasure…
Pianist Ben Wilcock’s Fond Edinburgh Connections
When Hamilton-born Ben Wilcock signed up for a Fringe run with New Zealand’s Indian Ink Theatre Company in 2003, he had no idea that Edinburgh would play a recurring role in his career as…
Connan Mockasin and His Dad Make an Album Together
“New Zealand psych rocker Connan Mockasin’s collaborative album with his dad, Ade, has bad jokes, stream-of-consciousness poetry, and an odd, undeniable appeal,” Pitchfork Raphael Helfand writes in a review of, It’s Just Wind. “It only…
Conductor Gemma New Returns in Demand to US
New Zealand-born conductor Gemma New and Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan, “among the leading young lights in the international classical music world”, worked together in July as guest artists at the Aspen Music Festival. Irfan performed…
Lorde Sings Solar Power atop Ed Sullivan Theater
New Zealand pop singer Lorde, 24, was the musical guest on a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she performed the title track from her forthcoming album Solar Power, NME’s…
Lorde’s Just Scratching the Surface of Her Powers
Lorde is back and the world’s media is clamouring for interviews. This latest is from The Guardian’s deputy music editor, Laura Snapes, who speaks with the pop star about her forthcoming third album Solar Power,…
Chalmers Brothers Promote Band With Car Wash
Originally from Hawkes Bay, the Los-Angeles-based Chalmers brothers, who perform as indie rock band Emperors Night, are promoting themselves by washing cars for free in exchange for a follow in their Instagram page, Richard…
Lorde’s Sunny New Single a Lesson in Patience
“Lorde has said she was ‘waiting for the right moment’ to release her comeback single, Solar Power, and opted for 11 June to coincide with the year’s only solar eclipse,” Laura Snapes writes for…
Crowded House Is Back and Loving It
With this month’s release of Crowded House’s latest album, Dreamers Are Waiting, journalist Russell Brown interviews the “reconstituted” band for The Sydney Morning Herald at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. They’re fresh from a…
Ladyhawke Bites Back with Guilty Love
Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, 41, has been through some tough times, but she’s come out on the other side, Robin Murray writes for music and fashion magazine, Clash. The New Zealand alt-pop force took…
Ten of the Best from The Chills Back Catalogue
Dunedin-formed band The Chills is releasing a new album, Scatterbrain. To celebrate, The Guardian counts down 10 of their top songs. “A singular band, The Chills are difficult to stylistically define because their diverse…
Violinist Benjamin Baker Teams Up on New Album
“In July this year, New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker will be part of the online line-up for the East Neuk Festival,” Ken Walkton writes in a review page for The Scotsman. “Meanwhile, here he…
Christchurch Teen Flynn Cranston Flies Up Charts
Fifteen-year-old Flynn Cranston has become the youngest New Zealander to enter the Billboard music charts, after co-writing and co-producing hit single Richer with US rappers Rod Wave and Polo G, David Skipwith reports for…
Talented New Zealanders Make Forbes Under 30 List
New Zealander Stella Bennett, aka Benee, and Joshua Nanani, who goes by the name of Jawsh 685, are among the musical talent in the Entertainment & Sports category of this year’s Forbes 30 Under…
Wurld Series’ New Album Thoughtful and Witty
“Wurld Series seem to know how to escape millennial disaffection more than most. The Christchurch band, led by songwriter Luke Towart and producer and drummer Brian Feary, fight the encroaching threat of an optimised,…
Blackpink’s Rosé Smashes UK Charts Glass Ceiling
Auckland-born singer Rosé, 24, already a star as a member of one of the biggest girl groups on the planet, has now made history in one of the largest music markets in the world…
Metal Heroes Alien Weaponry on the Up
Alien Weaponry are part way through a tour of their homeland, New Zealand, Eleanor Goodman reports for UK heavy metal magazine, Metal Hammer. The run of dates is called the Level One Tour, named…
Six60 Play World’s Only Stadium Tour
They’re currently the planet’s biggest touring band, putting on huge shows in their COVID-free homeland, NME reports. In his own words, Six60’s frontman, Matiu Walters, told the magazine how that feels. “When New Zealand went into…
Singer Sarah Mary Chadwick Says It All on New Album
On the launch of her new album, Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby, New Zealand-born Melbourne-based singer Sarah Mary Chadwick “interrogates the forensic intimacy and specificity of her songs”. Jenny Valentish interviews Chadwick for…
Graeme James Revives Lost Art of Shipwreck Song
“It’s been a while since” anything like “a gripping seafaring-disaster song” has “come along, but to that list we can now add ‘The Voyage of the James Caird’ by New Zealand singer-songwriter Graeme James,”…
