2012 sees the release of Moana & The Tribe ‘Best Of’ compilation
Best Of includes the bands remake of the classic track ‘Black Pearl’ (Phil Spector) and the award winning ‘Moko’ (In 2004, Moana became the first non-American to win a major U.S.A based songwriting contest with this song beating over 11,000 compositions to win the Grand Jury Prize of the International Songwriting Competition.)
The album also features an instrumental experiment with fellow art laureates Alistair Galbraith and Richard Nunns and the title track to ‘Te Po’, a film written and produced by her partner documentary maker Toby Mills.
Moana & The Tribe kick off their performance year and the release of The Best Of at the Muriwai Waitangi Day Festival on Monday February 6th. All proceeds go towards a Muriwai Lifeguard Service Amenities Trust fundraiser.
“This retrospective album marks a new beginning for me” Moana Maniapoto says “It's been really interesting revisiting some songs I haven't listened to for years – it's bought a lot of memories back."
Described in the US magazine The Beat (2006) as a “truly inspiring performing and recording artist’, charismatic lead singer Moana has been credited by Songlines (2006) with ‘laying the foundations for the recent international exposure of New Zealand acts like Te Vaka, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Wai.”