Tale of grumpy teen behind winning song
When Nelson schoolgirl Joelle Noar drew a picture in 2015 showing why she loved life, she had no idea it would inspire popular children’s songwriter Kath Bee to write a song about it.
Five years on, the track – performed by Noar – has been judged best song at the 2020 NZ Children’s Music Awards.
Noar’s rendition of I Love Life, by Bee and fellow Nelson songwriter and producer, Doug Stenhouse, saw the song crowned APRA Best Children’s Song at the awards, screened on TV2 + 1 and streamed via Kiwi Kids Music last week.
Bee, who has previously won best children’s music video in the competition three times, said this year’s award was special.
‘‘For me it means recognition for everything that I’ve done for the past 18 years.
‘‘After writing over 50 songs and knowing kids have loved them for years, it just feels really nice to have that recognition.’’
Bee first spotted Noar’s picture on social media five years ago.
Noar had drawn it, aged 7, after asking why her teenage sister was grumpy all the time.
‘‘Her mum said it’s because she’s a teenager, she hates life’’, Bee said.
Her mother Maxine then told Noar to go off and remind herself not to hate life when she became a teenager.
Maxine posted the resulting picture, of what made Noar love life, on Facebook.
‘‘I just thought it was an awesome idea for a song, so I asked Maxine if I could use it as inspiration to write a song, and she said yes,’’ Bee said.
She wrote it straight away, later asking producer Stenhouse if he could ‘‘put the instrumentation behind it’’.
He ‘‘fiddled around’’ with the lyrics, some of the chords and the melody, but the pair couldn’t agree on a bridge, Bee said.
After ‘‘revisiting’’ the song at times, last year Stenhouse came up with a bridge she liked.
Noar seemed the obvious choice to perform the song, Bee said.
‘‘She’s a very talented little actress and singer, so I thought she’s the best person to sing it, because it’s actually about her.’’
Noar said she was ‘‘really happy’’ the song had won, and that her picture was its inspiration.
‘‘I can’t believe it really,’’ the Broadgreen Intermediate student said.
Noar said she was thankful for the opportunity.
‘‘It was fun to go out and dance on the beach.’’
Meanwhile Bee had just received ‘‘further recognition’’ as a songwriter, with nearly $25,000 in funding from Creative New Zealand to write 10 songs arising from children’s feelings from the Covid19 lockdown.
Stenhouse was due to put instrumentation behind the songs, she said.
Suggested themes for the songs had been teddy bears in windows, feelings of uncertainty, and siblings becoming better friends.
‘‘I just thought it was an awesome idea for a song, so I asked Maxine if I could use it.’’ Kath Bee