In the hot seat: Why Anika Moa wants to get up close and personal with politicians.

Anika Moa explains why she is looking for politicians to sit in the hot seat as her chat show returns to Maori TV this week. Kerry Harvey reports.

Politicians beware. Singer songwriter Anika Moa is saving space on the couch for the people who aspire to run New Zealand.

Auckland mayoral candidate Chloe Swarbrick was the only politico brave enough to take a turn on All

Talk With Anika Moa last year but the outspoken – possibly even outrageous – Moa is hoping others will take the plunge in election year.

“I’m very interested in politicians but I’m not interested in politics,” she says. “I want to talk to politicians about things they don’t get asked every day.”

Also in her sights are film director Taika Waititi, Boy star James Rolleston, and actor Sam Neill.

“We’ve got some beautiful guest singers but I really enjoy actors. Acting isn’t about your personal life, it’s more about you playing someone else so you are definitely more private,” Moa says.

“I like uncovering people and getting them to fess up to **** and to be more real with themselves.”

This is the woman who last year did the zombie walk with Cliff Curtis and made simulated love to Ben Mitchell (Shortland Street’s TK Samuels) – both on camera – in a bid to live up to her on-screen hero, Graham Norton.

And while she might look relaxed on screen, Moa says she was really a bundle of nerves.

“I didn’t enjoy the experience as well as I thought I would, mostly because I cared a lot about it and I wanted it to be good,” Moa says.

“I think it – the show – was better than I thought it would be, only because I worked with genuinely great people with really great minds who got it. But I always feel I need more work because I like being a perfectionist when I do interview people and I want to be better at everything I do. I’ll be better this year.”