July 21, 2013
VIDEO PICK: ARDIJAH- Haere Mai [Official video]
'Haere Mai' is a New Zealand folk song taught to us in primary schools throughout the country. There are many renditions of this song and Ryan Monga AKA Captain Fonk, founding member of Ardijah explains their version.
"When journeying to the USA a few years back, Ardijah wanted to take some songs unique to Aotearoa just to give the American audience a taste of home. We chose Haere Mai, E Ipo and Rainbow to add to our set list and of course we 'PolyFonked' it up to give the songs the Ardijah flavor. We were only going to play the songs exclusively in the USA and not play them in Aotearoa because we felt, the songs were too close to home and the original versions already had major success, but after trying them out here in Aotearoa at a gig, the songs went off, so we added them to our live set and album 'The Best PolyFonk'."
Ardijah were fortunate enough to film the music video at the exclusive 'Polynesian Cultural Centre' on Oahu, Hawaii while Ryan and lead vocalist Betty-Anne were there competing in the Queen Lili'uokalani Vaka race. It was the perfect backdrop to proudly display the many different cultures of Polynesia.