To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) 2024, running from September 14th-21st, Rolling Stone AU/NZ’s Song You Need to Know series is spotlighting a new up-and-coming Māori artist each day.
When is the best time to release your first fully reo Māori single? During Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, of course.
As Māori Language Week comes to a close for another year, HINA has shared “Hinātore,” which she wrote during Reo Māori SongHubs at Roundhead Studios.
To make it even more of an occasion, HINA has also unveiled the self-created accompanying music video (watch below). Made with the help of AI, she describes it as “a labour of love on all accounts.”
HINA, otherwise known as Amy Boroevich, is a multi-instrumentalist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She released her second project, the mini-album Omen, in 2023, which followed her 2020 debut EP, Muse.
“The governing themes are melancholia, desperation, and a primal need to belong to something bigger than myself,” she said about Omen upon its release.
“If Muse was summer, Omen is autumn. Aotearoa noir. For the past couple of years, I’ve felt drawn to expressing darker emotions in my songs and exploring more complex states of being. I’d previously shied away from it, so as not to seem ‘too much.’ But I’m learning to accept this more shadowed part of myself.”
Away from her work as HINA, Boroevich collaborates regularly with a whole host of excellent local musicians such as Babe Martin. She lent her talents to crafting the song “Me Pēhea Rā” for neo-soul artist MOHI, which earned the prestigious 2023 APRA Maioha Award. Additionally, she shared the stage with Em Walker, also known as Theia, lending her voice and bass skills to Theia’s te reo Māori project TE KAAHU.
Earlier this year, HINA took Rolling Stone AU/NZ through each track on Omen in greater detail, which you can read here.
HINA’s “Hinātore” is out now.
