Kiwilele Jam!

By Jill Kumar | Posted: Thursday August 29, 2019

The songs that we played were:

• Kiwi ukulele ( Kiwileles theme song)

• Tutira Mai

• O Le Pepe

• Tai Aroha

• He Kakano Ahau

• Riptide

• Sweet child of mine

• The Can Can

• We are Aotearoa

• Aotearoa, no te Katoa

• Love, Love, Love

• Starship lullaby

• Don’t give it up

• Here to stay

When we played, the Kiwileles’s mascot came out on stage and started dancing. Everyone was strumming their ukuleles and we were having a blast! When it was time to play the Can-Can, all we had to do was sit back and relax. There was a lady called Justine Pierre, and she said she had a whole orchestra backstage. She called the percussion out, and they came out. But then, she went to call for the brass, but nobody came out from backstage! So, Justine got a trombone from the side of the stage and played the only song that she knew how to play, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Then, she called for the strings section, but again, no one came out. So she got a violin from the side of the stage, and played Twinkle Twinkle AGAIN!! Then the same happened with the woodwind section, so she got her flute from side stage, and played Twinkle Twinkle yet again!! But then came a surprise. She started playing some complicated notes and everyone started cheering and clapping for her. I really liked when she was told to play them all at once, and then she panicked for a second, but then calmed down and called out for the organ. We had to play now and then, but most of the time, we were enjoying listening to the majestic organ. That’s right! The organ player came out and started playing the Can - Can for us! It was very cool because they got all of the principals that were at the jam to go up and play the triangle!! It’s lucky Mrs Kumar isn’t the principal of Kaikorai! Otherwise, she would’ve had to play the triangle up on stage!

Two of my favorite songs that were played were; Sweet Child Of Mine because we got to play some chords behind our heads where we couldn’t see where our fingers were going and the other song was Here To Stay because I just really like that song.

The girl who wrote Aotearoa, No Te Katoa, Lucy Summerfield, was there and she sang her song for us.

At the end of the Ukulele Jam, we all got a cool badge that says Kiwilele on it. I am sure that every child that went to the jam loved it and that they will go next year too.

Report by Emily Fotheringham and Staci Sheehan.