Bic Runga

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Bic Runga at a concert in Auckland, New Zealand, 2010

Briolette Kah Bic Runga MNZM (born January 13, 1976 in Christchurch ) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and one of the most successful musicians in her country.

biography

Her mother Sophia (née Tang) is a Chinese-Malay lounge singer, her father Joseph Runga comes from New Zealand. The parents met while their father was traveling home in Malaysia, at the time he was stationed as a soldier in Vietnam . They both moved to New Zealand together.

Music and art were very important to her parents and they integrated these interests into the everyday life of the family. Already at the age of four Runga made music together with her sisters Boh and Pearl and recorded the first songs they sang together on cassette. Runga also learned various instruments such as drums , keyboard and guitar in private .

At the Cashmere High School in Christchurch, she made her first experience in front of a larger audience. Together with the combo Love Soup , Runga performed in a talent competition called Smokefee Rockquest and reached third place. This brought her her first record deal with the independent label Pagan Records .

Career

In the early 1990s Bic Runga moved to Auckland , where she appeared with her own compositions and received mostly good reviews. She became aware of Sony Music , and when she was 19 she signed her first major contract with Sony Music New Zealand.

In 1997 she released her first solo album, Drive , which has gone platinum six times in New Zealand to date. This album also won the Swag of Tui , the New Zealand equivalent of the US Grammy Award . Among other things, there was an award for the best album, the best recording, the best composition and the best vocal performance. The best-known song from this album, Sway , can be heard in the movie American Pie - Like a hot apple pie .

In 2002 Bic Runga released her second solo album Beautiful Collision . This is the best-selling album in New Zealand to date. For recording of their second album, which in Auckland , Los Angeles and New York was taken, she lived for a time in New York. In 2003 and 2004 she lived in Paris and London for some time and founded her own label Nu Shoo Records .

At the beginning of 2005 she returned to New Zealand. Her father died shortly afterwards. That same year, she played a supporting role in the film Little Fish by Rowan Woods . Like her mother in real life, she played a Chinese lounge singer. The album Birds was also released in 2005 .

In January 2006, Bic Runga was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for her contribution to New Zealand music .

Three albums by Bic Runga have reached first place on the New Zealand RIANZ charts and have been awarded platinum several times . For example, their second album, Beautiful Collision, was in the New Zealand album charts for 101 weeks and went platinum 10 times.

Private life

Bic Runga has lived in New Zealand since 2005, close to her sisters and mother. She is in a relationship with the photographer Darryl Ward. Since 2007 they both have a child, who they named Joseph after Runga's father .

Trivia

Her sisters Boh and Pearl, like Bic, are artistically active and sing in the bands Stellar (Boh) and Ce Soir (Pearl).

Discography

Albums

  • 1998: Drive (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ: platinumplatinum)
  • 2000: Together In Concert: Live , together with Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:Quintuple platinum× 5Quintuple platinum )
  • 2002: Beautiful Collision (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:Tenfold platinum× 10Tenfold platinum )
  • 2003: Live In Concert , with Christchurch Symphony (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:Double platinum× 2Double platinum )
  • 2005: Birds (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:Triple platinum× 3Triple platinum )
  • 2008: Try To Remember Everything (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:goldgold)
  • 2011: Belle (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:goldgold)
  • 2017: Drive: 20th Anniversary Edition (Sony Music Entertainment, New Zealand, NZ:Seven times platinum× 7Seven times platinum )

Singles

Web links

Commons : Bic Runga  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of honors of the New Zealand Order of Merit 2006 ( Memento of the original from February 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed April 22, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dpmc.govt.nz
  2. ↑ Chartinfo on charts.org.nz (English), accessed on April 22, 2010
  3. ↑ Awards for Music Sales: NZ
personal data
SURNAME Runga, Bic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Runga, Briolette Kah Bic
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Christchurch , New Zealand