Biography
Paige Tapara, a folk-pop singer/songwriter of Māori heritage from New Zealand’s North Island, secured a Sony Music contract in the late 2010s on the strength of her candid, heartfelt material. Extensive touring followed, placing her alongside George Ezra and Holly Humberstone, while the 2020 EP Always Growing marked her first major release. Her full-length debut, King Clown, arrived in 2023 and collected two Aotearoa Music Awards nominations; after joining the Jonas Brothers for a 2024 Auckland show she issued the self-acceptance anthem “This Is Me.”
Raised in Clark’s Beach roughly an hour from Auckland, Tapara belonged to one of the village’s few Māori households and initially hesitated to claim her ancestry. Songwriting offered an outlet, and she began composing as a child to process complicated feelings. During adolescence she posted performances online, which prompted the independent 2017 EP On My Own. Listeners responded to the introspective acoustic style and gentle vocal tone; follow-up singles “So Far” and “Alignments” then achieved wider streaming traction. The momentum led to her Sony signing and the more refined, R&B-leaning 2019 single “Bloom,” which appeared alongside the airy “Too Much to H8” and “Waves” on Always Growing. The EP unexpectedly resonated in South Korea, earning a pair of Aotearoa Music Award nods plus the Waiata Māori Music Award for Best Māori Female Solo Artist.
Tapara gradually embraced her Māori roots more publicly, channeling themes of self-discovery into her writing and issuing Māori-language versions of selected tracks. The 2022 song “Tō Aroha” served as a Waiata tribute to her grandfather. October 2023 brought the twelve-song album King Clown, produced by Simon Gooding, which fused R&B, pop, and acoustic folk elements and garnered two further Aotearoa Music Awards nominations. The reflective single “This is Me” followed in 2024.
Raised in Clark’s Beach roughly an hour from Auckland, Tapara belonged to one of the village’s few Māori households and initially hesitated to claim her ancestry. Songwriting offered an outlet, and she began composing as a child to process complicated feelings. During adolescence she posted performances online, which prompted the independent 2017 EP On My Own. Listeners responded to the introspective acoustic style and gentle vocal tone; follow-up singles “So Far” and “Alignments” then achieved wider streaming traction. The momentum led to her Sony signing and the more refined, R&B-leaning 2019 single “Bloom,” which appeared alongside the airy “Too Much to H8” and “Waves” on Always Growing. The EP unexpectedly resonated in South Korea, earning a pair of Aotearoa Music Award nods plus the Waiata Māori Music Award for Best Māori Female Solo Artist.
Tapara gradually embraced her Māori roots more publicly, channeling themes of self-discovery into her writing and issuing Māori-language versions of selected tracks. The 2022 song “Tō Aroha” served as a Waiata tribute to her grandfather. October 2023 brought the twelve-song album King Clown, produced by Simon Gooding, which fused R&B, pop, and acoustic folk elements and garnered two further Aotearoa Music Awards nominations. The reflective single “This is Me” followed in 2024.
Singles
