\u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019 also became a favourite for choirs across Aotearoa, which is how it came to eventually be recorded by Keith and Nancy Southern for Viking Seven Seas in Wellington. In the late 50s and early 60s, Viking owner Murdoch Riley developed a keen interest in recording Tahitian, Samoan, Fijian and M\u0101ori music, which musician and owner of music publisher Songbroker<\/a> Jan Hellriegel describes as \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d for that time in New Zealand. \u201cWords cannot express how important that catalogue<\/a> is,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe are so lucky to still have those recordings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Among this extensive Viking catalogue is the LP Turakina Sings, recorded with the Turakina M\u0101ori Girls Choir in 1976. According to a brochure from the school, students attending the private Presbyterian boarding school came from \u201cNauru, the Tokelaus, New Hebrides, The Chathams, from Gisborne, Dargaville, The Haast \u2013 and everywhere in between\u201d. The tracklist features \u2018Pokarekare Ana\u2019, \u2018Whakaaria Mai\u2019 and of course \u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful song and the most beautiful recording,\u201d says Hellriegel, \u201cIt just has so much heart and soul and magic\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is that same magic that would resonate nearly 50 years later, on the other side of the world in Los Angeles, when Project Hail Mary music supervisor Kier Lehman was tasked with creating a \u201cmixtape from Earth\u201d for the blockbuster space movie soundtrack, one that would incorporate music from all around the globe. \u201cWhile searching for goodbye songs from different cultures, I came across \u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019 and I knew the song was special because of how it conveyed the sentiment of saying goodbye, even if you didn\u2019t understand the lyrics,\u201d he tells The Spinoff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Lehman listened to many different recordings of the song, and found that the version sung by the Turakina M\u0101ori Girls\u2019 Choir in 1976 \u201cfit perfectly with the tone and pace of the scene\u201d as well as the \u201cvintage quality\u201d of most of the soundtrack. \u201cWhen I played it for the directors, they got goosebumps and were instantly sold,\u201d he says. \u201cIt became a standout moment we kept referring back to throughout the process as the perfect example of what we wanted to achieve with the soundtrack, highlighting the richness of global music and the shared human experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Back in Aotearoa, Hellriegel describes being \u201cblown away\u201d to receive the request for \u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019 to be licensed to Hollywood. \u201cI\u2019ve been around the business for a long time, and I still get excited when this sort of thing happens,\u201d she says. While she has brokered deals including The Clean on UK television and The Nukes in an Avatar promotion, she says \u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019 holds a unique place in our culture. \u201cMy parents used to sing that song, it\u2019s been in the fabric of our communities for years,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was really neat to think about a whole new audience finding it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She knew it would be special, but Hellriegel was not prepared for the public response. \u201cI knew it was coming, but it\u2019s really been something else,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense that no one\u2019s expecting it, and so they hear it, they look at each other, and slowly realise there\u2019s a familiarity there that is close to the beating heart of New Zealand.\u201d While she hasn\u2019t even managed to see Project Hail Mary yet, she\u2019s been devouring the social media feedback. \u201cThese comments are all talking about their hairs standing up on end, meanwhile my hairs are standing up on end just reading them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While people continue to get goosebumps hearing \u2018P\u014d Atarau\u2019 in cinemas across the country, and indeed the world, Hellriegel hopes it also serves to illustrate the power of our creative industries on a global stage. \u201cThese industries are very valuable, both culturally and in terms of what they can achieve with our economy,\u201d she says. \u201cI am constantly exporting our creative copyright all around the world, which is great for all of us, but people don\u2019t seem to understand the opportunity in the same way because it\u2019s not butter or meat.\u201d<\/p>\n The moment is also a reminder of the importance of preserving our own back catalogue. \u201cOne of the other biggest things for me is making sure that we protect all of our music like this, and that we continue to make it available for everyone,\u201d Hellriegel says. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting that local musicians can be reminded that there are still amazing opportunities out there in music. You never know when one of your songs is going to be picked up for a TV show or film, but I\u2019ve learned that great pieces of art have a habit of finding the perfect place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAnd this? This was just meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Project Hail Mary is in cinemas nationwide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The te reo M\u0101ori anthem soundtracks the climactic scene of Ryan Gosling\u2019s new space blockbuster, but how did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,3686,139,69,1066,95894,27962,22319],"class_list":["post-348007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-music","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-project-hail-mary","tag-ryan-gosling","tag-te-reo-maori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The original masters label for Turakina Singers. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n
Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary.<\/p>\n