World Choir Games launches Official Song
1 May 2024
Celebrating New Zealand Music Month, we're thrilled to present the Official Song of the World Choir Games 2024: Te Taukaea Tangata - Breathing In, Breathing Out.
Composed by distinguished New Zealand songwriter and NZ Music Hall of Fame inductee Don McGlashan and Hana Mereraiha, enriched with lyrics in both te reo Māori and English, the song celebrates the importance of breath, voice, resonance, connection and trust.
The song also hints at the emergence of a young country and the weaving together of its people, as in the lyrics of the chorus:
Ko te reo ihirangaranga
E karānga ake nei
E raranga ana i te taukaea tangata
The voice of the first singer sets the space vibrating.
It is sounding even now,
weaving together the strands of humanity.
Te Taukaea Tangata - Breathing In, Breathing Out will serve as the heartbeat of the Games, and will have its first full, live performance at the Closing Ceremony at Spark Arena by Marlon Williams (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi Tai) and Ria Hall (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui).
About the artists
Don McGlashan - Composer/Songwriter
One of New Zealand’s best known and most highly regarded songwriters, Don McGlashan is also a singer and multi-instrumentalist who won early fame with three iconic Kiwi bands before going solo. He has also scored more than a dozen feature films and five TV series.
Through the 1990s, Don was singer and main songwriter for The Muttonbirds, who released four NZ top-ten albums and two top-five singles. In 1994 his song ‘Anchor Me’ won the APRA Silver Scroll, NZ’s top songwriting award. Don's latest album, ‘Bright November Morning’, reached number one in the NZ Album charts. In 2023, he was inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame.
Hana Mereraiha - Writer/Translator
An accomplished Mātanga Reo (language master) and te reo champion, Hana Mereraiha is one of the country’s top translators. She has been a key translator for the Waiata Anthems project, working with such celebrated NZ artists as Tim Finn and Lorde, and for the release of ‘The Lion King’ in te reo Māori.
Hana describes her approach to translation as holistic, first establishing a sense of whanaungatanga or relationship with her collaborator, and then understanding the context and meaning behind the piece she is interpreting. Hana has also helped numerous artists reconnect to their whakapapa through her work. Her own whakapapa includes the Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Koata, Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Mutunga.
The World Choir Games 2024 will be held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 10 - 20 July. Browse the programme and purchase tickets here.