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Anika Moa
Born on 21
May 1980 in Papakura, Auckland Anika Moa announced herself as
"different" when she turned up at a rock and roll talent quest
normally competed by bands which was being held on the grounds of her high
school in Auckland. She joked to the audience that her band hadn't turned
up, but there was never a band, just Anika. She managed to pull off a
performance that elevated her to the next level of the talent quest. More
significantly, the 18 year old was spotted and signed up by a manager.
At a
record company conference in Hong Kong a New Zealand executive took the
initiative to slip a demo recorded by Anika for $500 to one of the most
powerful men in the international music industry, Atlantic Records' Ron
Shapiro. On the strength of that demo tape she was flown to New York to
meet with Shapiro's "people" A year later Anika Mora was back in
the US, living in a central New York apartment, recording her debut album
with producer Victor Van Vugt, known for his work with Beth Orton,
P.J.Harvey, Nick Cave, and Kylie Minogue.
Anika's
recording career was launched at home in New Zealand with a single,
'Youthful', which immediately captured the imagination of her homeland.
When the album, 'Thinking Room' was released in October 2001, it entered
NZ's national charts at. No.1.
In
retrospect Anika revealed that her second album ‘Stolen Hill’ dealt with
her discovery that she was gay. 2007’s third album ‘In Swings And The Tide’
started out as a demo session, that ended up in a completed album recorded
in her lounge room and produced by Anika herself. The songs dealt with the
break-up of a recent relationship and the death of her father who had been
absent during the singer-songwriter’s childhood. On the way to 2010’s ‘Love
In Motion’ she married burlesque artist Azaria Universe. The album’s title
song looks back on the boy-crazy of her youth. The album takes her through
to her same-sex marriage. It was her fourth Top 10 album in a row.
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