There are performances that become milestones in entertainment history and give bragging rights to people who witnessed them as they happened. Seeing the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 is one. Watching ABBA win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 is another.
Hawaii can add Kamaha‘o Haumea-Thronas’ performance last month at the 103rd Annual Kamehameha Schools Song Contest to the list. The 13-year-old’s dramatic rendition of the Sol Bright classic “Hawaiian Cowboy” wowed the crowd at the Blaisdell Arena and had local social media abuzz in the days afterward.
This year’s contest theme, “Na Mele Paniolo,” celebrated the musical heritage of Hawaii’s cowboys, and the song was a perfect fit. The Kamehameha Schools eighth grader displayed stellar talent as a falsetto vocalist, musician, hula dancer and all-around entertainer.
The number would have been a challenge for an entertainer of any age. Kamaha‘o welcomed the opportunity when it came his way.
“I was at a Merrie Monarch fundraiser for one of our halau and kumu Kaleo (Trinidad) came up to me and asked if I’d be interested in performing at Song Contest. I had no idea what song or anything, I was just, ‘OK, yeah, cool,’ and then he got in touch with us and he said that he wanted somebody to perform “Hawaiian Cowboy.” At the time I didn’t know the song. I’d heard of it before, one of my goals was to learn the song. But I never got to it because it’s such a complex and difficult song to learn — and no one really can do it like Uncle Sol.
“Once I got the A-OK that I’m going to be doing ‘Hawaiian Cowboy,’ I started listening and watching all the different videos of Uncle Sol and the other artists that performed it after him. When I got to rehearsal, (Trinidad) handed me the (lyric) sheet … and he said, ‘OK, you have two weeks to learn the whole song.’ ”
A native speaker of Hawaiian, Kamaha‘o was able to learn the lyrics with relative ease. After that, he faced the challenge of learning the choreography. Watching vintage film and video clips, he noticed that Bright did something different in every performance. However, there were some things — movements and facial expressions — “that he would do over and over again.” From there, Kamaha‘o and his kumu developed choreography that would evoke memories of Bright and his music.
At the end of Kamaha‘o’s song, multi-Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Kuana Torres Kahele gave Kamaha‘o a congratulatory hug. Kahele, who was onstage to sing “Na Vaqueros,” a song he’d written to commemorate his own paniolo heritage, wasn’t surprised by the youth’s impressive performance.
“When he was about 7, 8 years old, we took him on the road with us — him and the mom — when we did our last (Na Palapalai) album, ‘Back to the Patch,’ and shortly before that,” Kahele said. “Fast forward to today, he’s now 13 (and) at Kamehameha, and what he did at Song Contest was no different than what he was doing when he was 7 or 8 years old. He’s always been like that, and he has that personality. Very outgoing, very sure of himself and just having fun.”
Kamaha‘o says it was an honor to perform with Na Palapalai in 2019. He counts the trio among his mentors.
“They were really my idols from the newer generation of music. Their style of singing, the music they create, their arrangements. It’s just mind-blowing, really. I’ve had so many more mentors, but they did play a pretty important part in it.”
Even at the age of 8, Kamaha‘o was already several years into his chosen career. He started singing when he was a “little kid” at Kawaikini New Century Public Charter School on his home island of Kauai and participated in school song competitions. He began hula lessons when he was 6, and the following year, he took up the ukulele. His very first public performance came later that same year when he accompanied himself on ukulele while singing “Ulupalakua.”
For a school assignment last year, Kamaha‘o wrote what he calls his “first professional song” — “Nani Olohena.”
Looking forward, Kamaha‘o is taking his time in building his career. He has a growing list of original compositions and is participating in a recording project with multi-Hoku winner Zachary Lum, but his priority for now is expanding his repertoire.
“Every day I try and look at a new song, listen to a new recording. I always love listening to the old tapes of our kupuna from the late 1990s, or the 1980s even.
“I try to train and practice my voice as much as I can, not only for my generation but for the next, so that it can be recorded and saved so that I could be, in the future, maybe someone that they could look up to, and maybe in our song contest and maybe (in) 50 or 60 years, somebody tries to re-create one of my songs. That’s what I always remind myself as (to why) I do music: One, to share the stories of our people, to continue our culture and to carry on the legacy of all our kupuna and all our family members that have passed, to keep them living and keep our culture living through music. Two, to make people happy.”
He adds that he is grateful for the support and encouragement he continues to receive.
“Ever since I was little, I always had so much support from school, from my mom, my family, all my mentors in the music realm, and to this day, there are still people that support me all the way through from when I was just starting. I’m just really grateful and honored. It’s really humbling to see all the love and support from everybody.”
