Music industry vets compete in new Hoku Awards category

When the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) announces the winners of the 2018 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards Saturday at the Hawai‘i Convention Center the list will include winners in three new categories — music video, heavy metal album and Hawaiian single of the year.

The creation of the metal category followed the establishment of a separate category for “alternative” rock in 2013. The Hawaiian single category gives HARA two categories for singles and four for performance or composition in Hawaiian. Unlike two of the other Hawaiian language awards, the winner for Hawaiian single will have been determined by the vote of the entire HARA membership rather than a panel of language specialists fluent in Hawaiian.

Since most members of HARA are not fluent in Hawaiian the voting may favor catchy melodies and arrangements over precise pronunciation and the subtleties of poetic technique.

All five finalists have won Hoku awards in years past. All of them are excellent representatives of contemporary Hawaiian music.

Here they are in alphabetical order by title:

“E NANA”
Nathan Aweau (Bass Plus Music Arts)

Nathan Aweau is a multi-Hoku Award-winner as a solo artist and for his work as a member of Hapa. He wrote “E Nana” as a reversal of the conventional story of a female hula dancer enticing an admiring man.

“I thought it would be a nice change to write a song in which the roles were reversed (and) the male teases the woman,” he said.

“KANAKALOKA”
Kalani Pe‘a (Kalani Pe‘a Music)

Kalani Pe‘a made history in 2017 by becoming the first Hawaii-resident recording artist to receive a Grammy award and a Hoku for the same project — his debut album, “E Walea.”

With “Kanakaloka” he puts his stamp on a Mary Kawena Pukui classic about Santa Claus.

“I sang this song as a child in Hawaiian immersion (school),” Pe‘a said last week in an email. “It’s one of my favorite Hawaiian/contemporary mele, and it surely brings back fond childhood memories.”

“KAULANA KA INOA ‘O HOKULE‘A”
Chad Takatsugi featuring Na Hoa and Kuini

Takatsugi wrote this song to celebrate the return of the Hokule‘a to Hawaii while he was on tour in Japan and unable to welcome the canoe in person.

He recorded it as a video with two groups he was touring with, then posted it on social media “to connect us spiritually despite being thousands of miles away,” he said in an email.

“Mele has that power to transcend normal obstacles and in that moment, we were there welcoming mama wa‘a (the speedy canoe) home.”

“KU‘U LEI PUAKENIKENI”
Shawn and Lehua (Kalima Music, LLC)

Shawn Pimental and Lehua Kalima first played this song with kumu hula Aloha Dalire and her halau at the Merrie Monarch Festival in 2014.

Pimental and Kalima composed the melody, the lyrics had been written by kumu hula Kawaikapuokalani Hewett as a requiem for his son. Dalire died unexpectedly several months later.

“Little did we know it would be (her) last year with us,” Kalima said. “We will always fondly remember Kuakapu Hewett and Aunty Aloha when we sing this song.”

“NOU E PAUAHI”
Eric Lee (Lee Enterprises )

Kamehameha Schools graduate Lee wrote “Nou E Pauahi” in consultation with Louis “Moon” Kauakahi “to honor my (high school) class, especially the ones we’ve lost, and also pay tribute to Princess Bernice Pauahi,” whose will mandated the establishment of the school in 1887.

“This song is about family,” he said. “Hold on to them, respect them, honor them, love them, cherish them.”