Pe‘a is Hawaii’s sole Grammy nominee

Based on recent history favoring Louisiana recording artists in the regional roots music category, the odds would appear to be against Hawaii’s Kalani Pe‘a winning a 2017 Grammy Award today in Los Angeles, but he already owns a unique piece of music history.

Pe‘a, 33, is the first graduate of a Hawaiian-language immersion program to make it to a final Grammy ballot. He attended Ke Kula ‘o Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u in Keaau on Hawaii island from third grade through high school, graduating in 2001.

“This is huge for the Hawaiian immersion program statewide,” Pe‘a said, sounding proud but not boastful in a call from his home in Wailuku. The announcement in December that his debut album, “E Walea,” was on the final Grammy ballot was a life-changing moment for him.

“I went from singing under that banyan tree in Lahaina — and I’m so grateful being able to promote myself that way — to being a headliner and being a part of concert series on Hawaii island and Oahu,” Pe‘a said. “I was looking forward to the Hoku Awards (in May), but I did not know I would have been nominated for (a Grammy) for my debut album.

“I cried. I cry each day with joy and knowing that there’s people I have impacted with my mele and with my charisma and with my style,” he added. “Singing is what I love to do. Singing makes me happy. I’m just so blessed.”

The “charisma” and “style” Pe‘a refers to are his trend-setting fashion choices. The cover of Pe‘a’s album shows him wearing a suit coat, a Pineapple Palaka tie and a spiffy cap. He tapped Hawaii fashion designer Kini Zamora to create his attire for today’s Grammy Awards ceremony.

“I’ve always loved wearing suits,” Pe‘a said. “I am so into fashion. I’m all about being fashion-forward and innovative.

“When I got the call that I would be the nominated artist from Hawaii, I immediately thought of Kini Zamora. He flew to Maui and he did our measurements, and I’m gonna have Hawaiian prints that really have a storyline on my clothes.”

The 59th annual Grammy Awards show airs live today at 3 p.m. on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with a rebroadcast at 7:30 p.m. The winner for best regional roots music album will be announced sometime before the broadcast; watch online at grammy.com.

If Pe‘a beats the odds and wins, he will be the first Hawaiian artist to take home a Grammy since the category was created. From 2012 through 2016, artists from Louisiana have won it every time. Three of this year’s five finalists are from Louisiana: “Broken Promised Land,” by Barry Jean Ancelet and Sam Broussard; “Golfstream,” by Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars; and a compilation album, “I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country,” produced by Joshua Caffery and Joel Savoy.

The fourth, “It’s a Cree Thing,” by Northern Cree, is the sole representative of Native American recording artists. Pe‘a is the fifth.

Win or lose, Pe‘a and his manager and fiance, Allan B. Cool, have plenty to celebrate. Their journey started several years ago when Cool said it was time for Pe‘a to “stop singing for free” in karaoke bars and record the songs he’d been writing.

Someone suggested they work with Oahu studio engineer Dave Tucciarone, a 13-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner. That meant scrimping and saving to accumulate the money it cost to fly to Honolulu weekly for seven months to work with him.

“People think there’s Kalani and a whole huge team. No, there isn’t,” Pe‘a said. “There’s me, the singer/songwriter, and there’s my partner, my backbone, my iwikoamoo (backbone), my fiscal manager, my creative arts manager, the man who keeps me in line — Allan Cool — who believes in me.

“We didn’t ask anyone else for money. We are Kalani Pe‘a Music LLC; we are the enterprise, just Allan and I.”

The money was well spent. Pe‘a, Cool and Tucciarone took their time and did it right, recording seven of Pe‘a’s original Hawaiian-language compositions, some of his favorite Hawaiian classics and remakes of two pop hits — “You Are So Beautiful” and “Always and Forever” — that he translated into Hawaiian.

“E Walea” was released to critical and popular acclaim in July.

Music has been one of Pe‘a’s passions since he was a 4-year-old with a speech impediment. Singing accomplished what conventional speech therapy did not: He now speaks with no trace of a stutter.

He could have gone into music when he graduated from Ke Kula ‘o Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u — he won the Brown Bags to Stardom talent contest in 1998 at age 18 singing All-4-One’s hit “These Arms” — but decided to go college instead. Pe‘a choose Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colo., and studied communications and vocal performance.

While in college he took first place in the men’s category in classical and musical divisions at a National Association of Teachers of Singing regional competition. He graduated in 2007 with a degree in mass communications. After working for two years at a mainland television station, he decided to return home.

“I learned all the techniques, I learned about reading music and then I came home getting back into writing music in Hawaiian, my olelo Hawaii, and writing music that defines me — Hawaiian, contemporary, R&B and soul — and I finally realized, ‘Am I ready?’

“What really got me into recording was when my other half says, ‘You gotta stop singing for free in karaoke bars.’”

Now Pe‘a is juggling the demands of his newfound fame as a recording artist with his day-to-day responsibilities as a teacher and curriculum specialist based at Kamehameha Schools Maui. He works in the Kealakulia Hawaiian Culture Based Education Department, serving about 600 Hawaiian students on Maui and Kauai who aren’t enrolled at Kamehameha campuses.

“I am into education — that makes me happy — and on the side I’m a full-time musician, so I have two full-time jobs,” he said.

Although “E Walea” was intended primarily to display Pe‘a’s talents as a singer and songwriter, it ends with a song he included for sentimental reasons, “Nani a Maika‘i.”

“That particular mele haipule (church song) takes me back to Mary Kahiawemanuia Pe‘a, my grandmother, who taught us this song — my father and myself — and that’s where we were able to harmonize together. I wanted to honor my grandmother with that particular mele.”

As he was apologizing for having to hang up and catch a plane, Pe‘a shared a story about one of his original songs, “Ku‘u Poli‘ahu,” which compares his mother to the snow goddess. He wrote it for an upper-level Hawaiian songwriting class.

“It got a C from the teacher, but it got me No. 1 on iTunes and a Grammy Award nomination,” he said with a chuckle.

HAWAII’S GRAMMY HISTORY

Hawaiian music received a long-hoped-for boost in 2004 when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the creation of a Hawaiian music album category, starting with the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2005.

For the seven years the category existed, it was dominated by compilation albums. When a compilation album wins a Grammy, the award goes to the producers and not the artists.

Here are those winners:

>> 2005: “Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2,” producer Charles Michael Brotman

>> 2006: “Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Volume 1,” producers Daniel Ho, Paul Konwiser and Wayne Wong

>> 2007: “Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar – Live From Maui,” producers George Kahumoku Jr., Ho, Konwiser and Wong

>> 2008: “Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar,” producers Ho, Kahumoku, Konwiser and Won

>> 2009: Tia Carrere and Ho, “‘Ikena” (pictured)

>> 2010: “Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 — Live From Maui,” producers Ho, Kahumoku, Konwiser and Wong

>> 2011: Carrere and Ho, “Huana Ke Aloha”

In 2011 the recording academy, which had re-branded itself as The Academy, cut the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109, with Hawaiian music album being one of the 31 categories eliminated.

Since 2012, Hawaiian artists have been competing with Cajun, zydeco, polka and Native American recordings in the regional roots album category. At least one Hawaiian artist has reached the final regional roots ballot each year, but none has won.

Here are those finalists:

>> 2012: Kahumoku, “Wao Akua: The Forest of the Gods”

>> 2013: Keola Beamer, “Malama Ko Aloha (Keep Your Love)”; and Weldon Kekauoha, “Pilialoha”

>> 2014: Kahulanui, “Hula Ku‘i”

>> 2015: Kamaka Kukona, “Hana ‘A‘ala”

>> 2016: Natalie Ai Kamauu, “La La La La”; and Keali‘i Reichel, “Kawaiokalena”

>> 2017: Kalani Pe‘a, “E Walea”