Nothing bizarre about Pauly’s legacy
One of the country’s much-loved anthems is being re-released next week to mark the 25th anniversary of the song taking the world by storm. David Skipwith reports.
In the summer of 1996, a hit single from a trailblazing South Auckland musician took the world by storm. The song, How Bizarre, launched the international career of OMC – headed by the late Pauly Fuemana – who became one of New Zealand’s most successful musical exports on the back of the infectious Polynesian pop tune that became an international chart topper.
In many ways, it’s hard to believe that was a quarter of a century ago.
‘‘How Bizarre just didn’t sound like anything else. So when it came out a lot of people went ‘what the f... is this’ because it just sounded so odd,’’ recalls New Zealand music stalwart Simon Grigg, who funded and released the song, co-written by Fuemana and producer Alan Jansson, on his independent label Huh! Records in 1995.
‘‘But when you hear it two or three times on the radio, all of a sudden it just sounds fresh. And, now, you listen to top 40 radio and pretty much everything sounds the same – they’re all versions of the same thing.’’
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the classic Kiwi anthem – which sold more than four million copies, earned $11 million in royalties, and continues to win millions of new fans through a TikTok revival – the album of the same name is being released on vinyl for the first time next week.
The release – remastered from the original 1996 mixes with new artwork from Auckland designer Barny Bewick – keeps Fuemana’s legacy alive. The talented and charismatic vocalist died of pneumonia in 2010, aged 40, having sadly lost his fortune and been declared bankrupt, after a long battle with a neurological disorder.
Fuemana was just 26 when How Bizarre launched him out of Otara and on to the world stage.
OMC formed the first time in 1992 by Fuemana’s older brother Phil Fuemana. They were playing with the industry from the beginning; the band’s name stood for Otara Millionaires Club – a tonguein-cheek title for a five-piece group from one of Auckland’s poorest but proudest postcodes.
OMC eventually dissolved but Fuemana kept the band name and formed a unique partnership with Jansson. Their mixed cultures – Fuemana’s mother was Ma¯ ori and his father Niuean, and Jansson is of Swedish and Greek heritage – meant they drew from a wide range of styles and influences, pioneering the urban Pasifika sound that inspired generations of Polynesian musicians to follow.
‘‘It has the mariachi trumpets there which Pauly got from listening to Herb Alpert records when he was a kid,’’ Grigg explains.
‘‘And the acoustic guitar is an Alan thing, from hearing folk rock on the radio, and Pauly’s vocal is almost a hip-hop consciousness style. So it was all these elements mixed together.
‘‘Alan’s wife kept on saying ‘how bizarre’ about things, and we thought ‘that’s a good phrase’. You’d say something to her, and she’d go ‘how bizarre’. So it came from her.’’
The song’s big unveiling at the 1995 Big Day Out in Sydney failed to convince many of the song’s potential, but a glowing write-up from Australian Rolling Stone writer Clinton Walker – who described Fuemana as ‘‘a man who sings and moves with the sharp easy confidence of a young Marvin Gaye’’ – proved prophetic.
By 1996, How Bizarre reached No 1 in New Zealand where it sat for three weeks, but success in Australia, where it claimed the top spot for five weeks, gave it the momentum to go on to top the singles charts in Austria, Canada, and Ireland, and eventually the US mainstream top 40.
And so began an exhausting campaign of touring and promoting that pushed Fuemana to his limits as he adjusted to his new pop star status and hectic lifestyle. ‘‘He went from living in a council flat in Greys Ave [in central Auckland], and next thing he’s on Top of the Pops,’’ says Grigg.
At one point, they did three return trips to the United Kingdom in just five weeks. And in between, flew to Australia twice. ‘‘It was quite a big jump, and it was very hard to prepare someone for that. I think Pauly handled it extremely well.
‘‘He kind of flipped out a bit when he got to the US, because it got very out of control there with a No 1 record. And everyone in the US wants something from you. They were feeding him all sorts of stuff, and it does get out of control.’’
Fuemana eventually pushed back against the relentless demands of his record label, and his run at international success came to an end when he insisted on returning home for his grandmother’s funeral in 1999.
It means only one OMC album was ever recorded, but the song How Bizarre continues to strike a chord with new listeners, drawing millions of plays through video and streaming services.
After featuring in countless TV shows, films, and advertising campaigns, it has recently enjoyed another pop culture revival through social media platform TikTok, amassing five billion views to date after being shared with the hashtag #HowBizarre.
Fuemana is rightly remembered as a true legend in South Auckland, right up there with some of our nation’s biggest sporting stars. And OMC’s music inspired many Kiwi artists such as Scribe, Savage, Che Fu, Tiki Taane, Nesian Mystik and many more.
If you ask Tanielu Leaosavai’i (aka Brotha D) of Dawn Raid Records, the only person you can really compare Fuemana’s legacy to is that of All Black Jonah Lomu.
‘‘Jonah was our first global hero, and probably David Tua was also in that category,’’ he says.
‘‘So when you think of the impact that those athletes had as South Auckland Polynesian boys, then you realise the impact that Pauly also had on us as musicians.
‘‘From our perspective at Dawn Raid, Pauly was our biggest inspiration. The fact a young boy from South Auckland could go and take on the world allowed us to have that belief that we could do it as well.’’