University of Otago student Tomuri Spicer is one of three songwriters commissioned to create a song for Sing Up Day 2023, a global event organised from the United Kingdom where school children in different countries come together to sing.
His song called Blossom Out is about how people focus too much time on worrying about jobs or money instead of seeing wonder in the world.
"We should be focused on being happy living in the natural world, and just appreciating life and the beauty of it."
The song includes te reo Māori and taonga pūoro, traditional Māori instruments.
"I'm always, always passionate about including Māoritanga into any music that I do."
"It's a really, really powerful thing for me to think that not only am I sharing some of my own personal knowledge with the world, I'm also helping to learn about my own whakapapa and my own Māoritanga and then my knowledge is going out into the world," he said.
He says it still "feels weird " to know his name is beginning to get known.
"For me, I'm just like a student who's living on Castle St. I'm not really making a massive name for myself individually, and yet, if you go online, you'll find me, you know, on all kinds of interviews, YouTube, all that kind of stuff."
Spicer thanked his friends and family "who helped me get to here", as well as the producers who assisted him to put together the song.
Sing Up chief executive Michelle James said the organisation "absolutely loved" Spicer’s submission and it was excited to share the song with schools and choirs around the world.
"We’ve been fortunate to have him share his breadth of knowledge on Māori language and culture."
Sing Up Day is on June 28 and a video compilation of the performances will be available to view on YouTube afterwards.
