The Northern Advocate

Māori artists top Spotify lists

- Mana Wikaire-Lewis

Since 2016, Spotify Wrapped has been unveiled every year, showing its 456 million users globally what they have been listening to, from the most played songs to the top five genres and more.

For Aotearoa, Māori dominate the top lists.

For the most streamed local artists, the list begins at No 5 with popular band Sons of Zion, longtime favourites Katchafire at No 4, former Australian Idol winner Stan Walker taking the third spot, multi-genre band of musos L.A.B taking No 2, and perhaps the most popular of them all, Six60 in the top spot.

Six60 have been dominating the local music scene and Spotify.

L.A.B have dominance elsewhere in the most-streamed local artist songs. From one to four, their hits In The Air, Mr Reggae, Controller and Under The Sun continue to show the band’s popularity. Up-and-coming Perthbased Māori band of brothers

Coterie take the fifth spot with Cool It Down.

L.A.B’s four hits come from three different albums, with Controller dating back to their first album in 2017.

Six60 also take the most streamed album this year in New Zealand, with their latest release from October, Castle St.

A Christchur­ch businessma­n has issued a court challenge to the Auditor-General over the wage subsidy scheme. The Gama Foundation, a philanthro­pic organisati­on run by Grant Nelson, has filed a Judicial Review applicatio­n in Wellington s High Court. Nelson has been investigat­ing the scheme after concerns the Auditor-General failed to help retrieve billions of dollars wrongly obtained or retained by businesses. He said the scheme’s high-trust model was wide open to abuse and the Ministry of Social Developmen­t failed to ask recipients to provide evidence of eligibilit­y.

More than $13 million is being put towards fixing flood damaged roads on the West Coast. Buller District Council has received funding from Waka Kotahi to repair roads damaged by the severe weather event in February. A council spokesman said repairs ranged from extensive road reinstatem­ent to minor clean-up works.

New Zealand’s coastal waters are getting warmer and that’s not good news for the ecosystem. Niwa said temperatur­es in November were 1.1C to 1.8C higher than the same time last year. Northern and western parts of both islands have experience­d the highest temperatur­es ever recorded. Niwa meteorolog­ist Ben Noll said ecosystems can’t cope with the warming waters, pushing certain marine creatures past the temperatur­es they can handle, which can upset the balance.

Staffing shortages have closed an in-patient mental health unit at Christchur­ch’s Hillmorton Hospital. Te Whatu Ora has made the decision to close the 15-bed Tupuna ward as it had only 52 per cent of the staff it needs. Specialist mental health service general manager Dr Greg Hamilton said the nine people currently receiving care and support will be moved in the coming weeks. He said the building will then reopen with a new model of care for acute inpatients in August next year.

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