Australia Week concert and music workshop
The Australian High Commission today announced Melbourne based singer Fatai as the headline musical act for the Australia Week in PNG concert on 28 May.
Fatai will perform with the PNG Idols, Naka Blood, Sprigga Mek, Noiziik and Mereani Masani in a huge collaborative evening at the Gold Club. She will also visit the University of PNG and participate in a workshop with music students about forging a career in the music industry.
Tickets for the Australia Week concert are only K25 and are available at the door, with proceeds going to charity.
Fatai is a Melbourne-based singer who is signed to Mercury Records Australia, which is part of Universal Music Australia. She has lived in Australia her entire life but she is extremely proud of her Tongan roots and beliefs. Her father was the choir conductor in church and it's there her love of music began. Music is and always has been a family affair, singing together at major events.
In 2009, she began a solo career, singing to audiences at various festivals and community events and in 2012, Fatai was a semi-finalist on the first season of The Voice. In the last year, she’s toured as main support to Boyce Avenue (USA), Guy Sebastian and David Ryan Harris (USA), and she has sold out her own headline tour spanning Australia and New Zealand.
The PNG Idols are a group of singers consisting of former winners and finalists of the longest running singing competition in PNG since 2010 which is hosted and organized annually at The Gold Club, Lamana Hotel. The PNG Idols performing at this years’ Australia Week Live Concert will also feature the 2015 PNG Idol Stanley Mark, 2010 winner Li Walter, 2011 winner Natalia Maino and former finalists.
Naka Blood is a collaboration of a handful of Papua New Guinean underground, home-studio, independent and self-made musicians/producers and MCs. Through the common love for R&B/Hip-hop, they have banded together to promote Papua New Guinea’s take on this genre of music.
Sprigga Mek is a unique emcee as he is a multilingual rapper in English, Pidgin, Mekeo and Motu. He has pioneered rap in the languages of Mekeo & Motu where he blends contemporary beats fused with wordplay, punchlines, similes and rhyme schemes in his native tongues.
Noiziik is a small beatbox association, taking the musical genres Hiphop, Drum and bass, and dubstep and mimicking voices to display vocal turntablism. Most of their inspiration comes from the musical instruments that they play, and they desire to spread beatboxing all over PNG and show the world their level of skill.
Mereani Masani is the 2014 PNG Female Artist of the Year with released singles 'Eternity' and 'Mangi Ailan'. In just a matter of a few but fast years Masani's star went stratospheric thanks to her explosive performances on Idol, where she gained recognition as a songstress with great vocal ability and as a natural entertainer.
Now in its ninth year, Australia Week is packed with 19 events over seven days from 28 May to 3 June, connecting Papua New Guinea’s youth to Australia through music, film, sport, food and debate. The Australia Week program can be found at www.png.highcommission.gov.au and on the High Commission’s Facebook page.