E Tū Whānau Song Competition winners, Jay Rerekura, Charlie Williams and Tyson Tauri. Photo / Jesse King
E Tū Whānau Song Competition winners, Jay Rerekura, Charlie Williams and Tyson Tauri. Photo / Jesse King
The song is called Troubled, but Jay Rerekura, Tyson Tauri and Charlie Williams had no worries when their song was announced as the 2018 E Tū Whānau Song Competition winner.
The results were released late on Wednesday night on Facebook and for the win the Whanganui trio will receive a prize of $5000.
Troubled made it to the judging stage after receiving the fifth highest number of Facebook votes and was then judged by Maaka 'Phat' McGregor, Tawaroa Kawana and Maisey Rika.
Tyson said they were stoked with the win.
"To have people that you look up to recognising your work is just so cool and to be honest it's all still sinking in.
"Charlie messaged us saying how much of a buzz it was that Maisey Rika chose our waiata. I thought our song was good, but to hear other people say that too, that's one of the biggest buzzes."
Tyson didn't know they had won until he woke up on Thursday to multiple notifications from friends and whānau on his social media apps.
The three winners hadn't had time to catch up properly and celebrate the win, but they were looking forward to doing so on Friday night.
It was the first time they had all worked together when they recorded, shot and edited Troubled within the space of a day.
"There are a lot of rappers and reggae artists now, we grew up around R&B. There's not much happening in that scene so it was nice to be able to do a bit of that with Troubled," Charlie said.
"As tāne ourselves, we've been there. We may have been troubled with partner issues, or tamariki or even work, and I know there are men out there that won't speak out.
"We're trying to give them the courage to speak out or write their own song or talk to another mate."
Leading in to the competition's conclusion, they had some conversations about continuing to make music together and even discussed the possibility of an album.
Those discussions might become a bit more serious now.
Jay, Tyson and Charlie were the only representatives in the competition from Whanganui and Jay would like to see that change.
"There's a whole lot of talent here in Whanganui, the trouble is they are shy. Hopefully we can inspire and motivate more people in our town to share their positive messages," Jay said.
"Also, a big thank you to everyone in Whanganui who shared our song and voted. Without them putting us in the top 10, we wouldn't have even been considered."
