Releasing her inner child helped a Dunedin entertainer win a children’s music award.
Rosalind Manowitz, who performs as Rainbow Rosalind, won the best children’s music video category at the Children’s Music Awards for the video of her original song Aotearoa, Home of Our Hearts — a song about the joy of growing up in New Zealand.
The only help she had to create the video and song was the backing vocals in the chorus by the Balmacewen Intermediate choir.
The video footage includes the Dunedin Railway Station, views across the city and the mother of one playing with her son Hueylo (1).
The former Logan Park High School pupil said the secret to writing a good children’s song was remembering what it was like to be a child.
"It’s finding that inner child and letting it all come out."
Christchurch duo Itty Bitty Beats won the Apra best children’s music song and recorded music best children’s album for their bilingual lullaby Po Marie and album Lay Your Head Down respectively.
Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society and Recorded Music NZ held the award ceremony in Auckland on Tuesday.
Apra Amcos’ head of New Zealand operations Anthony Healey said the children’s music scene in New Zealand was "positively fizzing".
Ms Manowitz agreed.
New Zealand children’s music was the "best-kept secret" in the country.
"There is a lot of amazing New Zealand children’s music out there. It’s just a matter of finding it," Ms Manowitz said.
Parents had a responsibility to find the music to help their children create an identity.
She would help parents meet the responsibility by releasing an album later this year.
In New Zealand, two musicians — Kath Bee and Captain Festus McBoyle — made a living from making children’s music.
"It is really difficult to make a living out of it but if you wanna do it, you’ve just got to go for it."
