You probably saw it on the news. Last month, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ONZ, one of our most revered cultural figures, was honoured at Parliament. The occasion was Dame Kiri’s 80th birthday but this was a celebration of a life, not a day. There were speeches, there were waiata, and then it happened: for the first time since retiring almost a decade ago, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang in public. She’s still got it, of course, the glorious voice. It wouldn’t fill Covent Garden or La Scala but there’s that sound, pure and true, and it earned her a standing ovation from the assembled politicians. Largely overlooked in all the excitement is that it wasn’t Dame Kiri’s rendition of Pōkarekare Ana at all; she was just singing to support the guy to her right.
“I thought I’d help Kawiti out,” she told Newshub afterwards, “because he was most probably nervous. I wasn’t,”
