Opetaia Foaʻi

Opetaia Foaʻi is a Tokelauan-Tuvaluan composer, musician, and singer who was born in Samoa, grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Australia. He is best known as the founder of the Polynesian band Te Vaka, and for his collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda on music for the Disney film Moana. He also worked on the music for its sequel.

Biography

He was born in Western Samoa in 1956. He is the founder of the band Te Vaka, which consists of himself and his two children and other musicians. He is married and has 4 children in total, including Olivia Foa'i and Matatia Foa'i.^[1] He composed the Samoan and Tokelauan language songs Logo te Pate, An Innocent Warrior and We Know the Way (English Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda) for the Disney film Moana.^[2][3][4] He currently lives in Australia. He was the Arts Pasifika Award winner of the Senior Pacific Artist Award in 2005. He was the second place winner of the 2004 International Songwriting Competition in the World Music category and the 2008 first place winner for the song Tamahana.^[5][6]