Taupo¯ teenager’s big TV moment
Third local contestant in Ma¯ ori TV Show
Talented young singer and musician Tyree Wall is the latest local to take a shot at fame on Ma¯ori Television’s new talent show 5 Minutes of Fame next week.
The show, which screens on Thursdays at 8.30pm, is hosted by Turanga Merito with judges Pere Wihongi and Bella Kalolo. Two vocalists compete against each other in one of four categories per episode — teen, female, male and group. There are eight performances per heat and a total of six heats; only four category winners per heat progress to the quarter-finals.
Next Thursday in the teen section, Taupo¯ -nui-a-Tia College student Tyre, 13, singing Ordinary People, competes against Kapowairua Waitai from Kaitaia with Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.
His appearance follows two other sets of locals three weeks ago, Dynasty and Darlene Marshall of Tu¯ rangi and Lucian McDermott of Taupo¯.
In the end, eight contestants will compete in the final of 5 Minutes of Fame before the top four — a teen, a female, a male and a group — face off to win the overall title. Category winners and overall title winner share a prize pool of $15,000.
To take the plunge and audition was a huge step for Tyree, who only last year was so shy that he didn’t like other people to see him singing. But his confidence has grown and the judges liked his video audition of the song Tennessee Whiskey so much that he was invited to do a live audition and then was selected for the finals.
With the support of his music teacher and uncle David Wall, who is teaching Tyree vocals and guitar, he had three days to learn a new song before he and mum Caela were given the rock star treatment — flown to Auckland and put up in a hotel.
Almost as soon as they arrived Tyree had three rehearsals with the live band plus recording the video interview (“that was really awkward”) and going through wardrobe, hair and makeup, interviews and photographs. He also had to balance rehearsing with saving his voice.
Tyree says before the taping of the final performance, which had to be done in one take, he was incredibly anxious. He couldn’t eat breakfast
and his nerves were on high alert.
“I was so nervous I was about to spew.” But he was calmed by the arrival of a carload of his cousins, who had arrived for a surprise visit and to watch him live.
“That really helped. They just didn’t even make me that nervous anymore.”
When it came to the performance in front of the judges, Tyree’s proud family say their boy absolutely nailed it, looking relaxed and sounding good,
with both David and his wife Carol Wall crying with pride while Tyree was singing.
“He just let go when he performed, it was really cool,” says David. “He looked relaxed, he smiled on stage and did everything that they told him to do.”
“It was cool [during the song],” Tyree says. “Everyone just smiled and it just makes me feel more confident and supported and I got lots of applause at the end.”
Tyree can’t divulge the outcome of the heats but says the whole experience of being on television has made him “way more confident”. His next project is to make his first album and he is already hard at work on the second song for it. He is also learning piano to add to his musical repertoire.
You can catch Tyree Wall on Ma¯ori Television’s 5 Minutes of Fame, screening at 8.30pm on Thursday, June 24.
Work has started to remodel a Napier-Taupo¯ Highway danger spot where a man was killed and nine others were injured last year.
The plans were confirmed to Hawke’s Bay Today by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regional transport system manager Oliver Postings, who said the work at the road entrance to the Tarawera Cafe, formerly the Tarawera Hotel and near the halfway point on the SH5 route from Napier to Taupo¯ , is to make the entrance safer and easier to access.
“The entrance will be made into a single accessway, rather than separate in and out accessways, to prevent confusion for vehicles wishing to access the cafe,” Postings said.
“This also means the entrance will be located further south to provide better sight distance for northbound vehicles to see vehicles turning right into the cafe.”
NZTA will also be installing electronic signs to warn of vehicles turning in and out of the cafe, reshaping the road into the cafe to reduce the steepness, and widening the left-turn slip lane for southbound traffic.
The horror crash last year
happened mid-morning on October 19 as a van that was heading for Taupo¯ turned across the road for a stop at the cafe and was struck by a truck and wine tanker as it veered to try to avoid the collision while also travelling towards Taupo¯.
NZTA has been been seeking public opinion on speeds on the highway and the
possibility of reducing the limit on more than half the route, including Tarawera, from 100km/h to 80km/h. Submissions on the proposals closed last Sunday.
A young man said to have been the driver of the van has been charged in relation to the crash. He has not made a plea and is due to appear in Napier District Court next week.