Love song makes waves
MAKING a hit on the radio waves, “Kalokalo Volasiga” a song about enduring love among the challenges of life is the latest craze in the country — loved by young and old.
The iTaukei song is based on the newfound love story of the singer — Rebecca Petterson and Petero Sioweli known as PJ — the songstress’s partner.
A relationship that has had its shares of trials, Ms Petterson, who goes by the stage name of Sassy, says it has endured seeing them together after two breaks.
“He (PJ) wrote the lyrics about our relationship,” she said.
“Our relationship has not been a bed of roses as we were together when I lived in Suva, then I had to move back to Auckland so we decided not to put ourselves through a long-distance relationship last year.
“We broke up again around February this year but we decided to give this love a chance and we have been together again.
“The song is actually about his feelings for me despite the geographical divide between us and if anything that Latin phrase
‘Amor vincit omnia’ is true because love really conquers all.”
The song called “Kalokalo Volasiga” which literally means the morning star describing the couples renewed love is written by Ms Petterson and her partner.
“At one point everybody thought we were over but our love is only sweeter now,” she said.
Ms Petterson is working on an iTaukei original album where her partner PJ will be her co-writer.
She describes her partner as a scribe with deep emotions that are described in the lyrics he pens down, evident in the song “Kalokalo Volaisiga”.
“I have a music degree from The University of Auckland and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz,” she said.
“This background is where I developed my ability to compose and arrange music with jazz harmony and theory.
“I then went on to teach at the university, as the jazz vocal tutor and jazz choir master.
“Later I taught diploma of contemporary music program at Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand before teaching diploma of contemporary music program at the same university.”
Ms Petterson also furthered her passion by singing and teaching music at a lot of Auckland schools, composing and singing on jingles for advertisements.
She toured with popular Kiwi funk/soul band called “One Million Dollars”.
“There were 11 of us in the band and I was the lead female vocalist. That was the band that gave me the stage name “Sassy” because of my performance style. I released my debut solo album in 2013. It featured top NZ musicians including the House of Shem horn player and members of Sons of Zion band.”
The album was a soul/ hip-hop album with a tinge of jazz influence.
“My Fijian music interest came about from having my three beautiful children who are half Fijian and I taught myself vernacular from sitting around the kava bowl listening to stories and learning sigidrigi songs,” she said.
“I am aiming to sing a song in the local Taveuni dialect, which will go on the album.
“I hope to inspire the next generation of Fijian artists to hold on to their mother tongue and I hope to work with local government someday to develop funding schemes to help Fijian musicians build their careers through study, research, recording projects and tours.”
Sassy will be performing at the Uprising Music Festival which will be held at the Uprising Beach Resort in Deuba on November 9.
At one point everybody thought we were over but our love is only sweeter now
– Rebecca Petterson