Indira’s WAKE-UP CALL

Growing up in Auckland, Indira Stewart knew she was going to be a singer, she just didn’t know that wasn’t all she would be. Coming from a musical family, she sang in church, studied music in high school, won a scholarship to Auckland University’s School of Music and even taught music at the prestigious Martin Hautus Institute.

Indira stepped into the spotlight 14 years ago, when her big chance came along in the form of New Zealand Idol, and she made it all the way to the top two. Now? She’s an award-winning journalist.

In October, she started her role at TVNZ as newsreader on Breakfast and, while there’s still an element of performance involved, it’s a far cry from where a young Indira thought she’d be at 34.

“Because I grew up in a musical family, that just always seemed like the only thing I was going to do,” she shares. “I never really saw anything else.”

And for many years, there was nothing else. But everything changed in her early twenties when Indira married and, within just a few years, had two children and