Homai Te Pakipaki is the live karaoke competition that has been playing on Maori Television every Friday night for the past four months, for those of you that haven’t seen it you need to catch up because this Friday’s show is the grand final! It’s basically the Maori TV equivalent of NZ Idol but without the budget or the bullshit. This show is all about raw talent, unlike NZ Idol the contestants are rarely physically attractive, and again unlike NZ Idol there are plenty of talented singers, and of course enough no-hopers (who usually get put on out of sympathy because they’ve auditioned for several consecutive weeks without success) to keep it interesting. There’s loads of fashion faux pas every week, muffin-tops, camel-toes and side-pipes (Wayne Anderson made a special appearance wearing the tightest pants I have ever seen!) and the host cracks toilet jokes and hits on all the old ladies. It’s about as real as it gets on TV, and that’s the charm of the show, real kiwis just being themselves and getting their shine on for a night. Tell me another show that keeps it realer than Homai Te Pakipaki and I’ll show you a fake! Where else in the world would you see an old man with one leg in a wheel-chair singing karaoke?

Lawrence Matthews (Episode 9 Winner)

Above is one of the 19 finalists who will be competing for the $10,000 grand prize this Friday night, I fully expected him to come out with a Bone Thug’s track or bust a free-flow for the “cuzzies down the line smoking the skunkies”, I was disappointed when I discovered that dude could actually sing, haha.

This show is so popular that people drive from all over the country every Friday to compete or be a part of the studio audience which spills onto the street every week and has meant that the grand final has been moved to a larger venue to accomodate everyone! The grand final is at the Beaumont Centre (98 Beaumont Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland), entry is by gold coin koha and you’re advised to be there by 7PM. Expect traffic delays on Friday as a mass exodus of family vans from all over New Zealand descend upon Central Auckland. I’m gonna be there for sure in my matching tracksuit holding up various signs with phrases like “Go Team!”, “Mean Maori Mean!” and “Vote!” If you can’t make it peep Maori TV from 8PM for the live-to-air.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 10:33 am and is filed under ...shizzle thizzle, Waiata (Music). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.