[PICS] Hoku Awards: The Main Event

May 31, 2010 by Star-Bulletin Staff
Filed under Latest News

Ho’okena big winners at 2010 Hoku Awards

Photos by FL Morris / fmorris@starbulletin.com

The opening segment of the 2010 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards featured hula and song.

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Traditional Hawaiian music prevailed as expected last night but by a closer margin than usual as the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) presented the 2010 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.

Ho‘okena — Manu Boyd, Horace Dudoit III, Glen Smith and Chris Kamaka — added another three Hokus to its career total as “Nani Mau Loa – Everlasting Beauty,” a finalist at the 2010 Grammy Awards in February, won Group of the Year and Hawaiian Language Performance, the latter an adjudicated award for the best performance in the Hawaiian language. Boyd added the third Hoku to the tally with a win for “Hanohano Helumoa” in the adjudicated Haku Mele category for the best first-time recording of a newly written song or chant primarily in the Hawaiian language.

This year’s three wins make it a career tally of nine for the Ho‘okena, which was founded in 1989 but traces its roots back to an earlier group, Kipona Leo Hawai‘i, that won the Ka Himeni Ana competition in 1986. Speaking on behalf of the current members Ho‘okena, Boyd acknowledged the contributions of the two former members — William “Ama” Aarona and Bozo Hanohano — during their years with the group.

Two Hokus for Anuhea Jenkins (above), niece of Na Leo Pilimehana member Nalani Jenkins Choy, made her the top winner representing contemporary and pop music. Her debut album, “Anuhea,” won in the Most Promising Artist(s) and Contemporary Album category.

Only three other artists made multiple trips to the winners’ podium: Jake Shimabukuro, Lorna Lim and Uluwehi Guerrero (above) also had two awards each. Guerrero’s “Uluwehi Sings Na Mele Hula Aloha” won Best Hawaiian Album with a second award going to him as the album’s liner notes. Lim won Song of the Year for “Polinahe,” which she co-wrote with Wailau Ryder; the second award for her album went to Kuhau Zane whose graphics art design won in the Graphics category.

Shimbukuro notched his fifth career win in the Instrumental Album category and his third for Favorite Entertainer, the only category that is open to public voting.

BEYOND THOSE multiple winners there were no trends. Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom beat Mailani Makainai (above) and HARA President Ku‘uipo Kumukahi for Album of the Year but Makainai won the showdown for Female Vocalist and Kumukahi’s “E Ku‘uipo E Hula Mai Me A‘u” prevailed over Gilliom’s “Friends and Family of Hawai‘i” the Island Music category. Raiatea Helm was also an also-ran for Female Vocalist but she won Best Music Video/DVD over a field that included Willie K’s DVD album, “Uncle Willie K Live At Mulligans On The Blue.” Willie wouldn’t have gone home empty handed if he’d been there— his DVD took top honors over a strong field to make him the winner in the Male Vocalist of the Year category.

However, Willie was one of several working entertainers who found Sunday night the wrong night for an awards show. Forced to choose between honoring a commitment to play on Maui on one hand, and giving up the gig to come to Oahu to see if he’d won another Hoku Award, Willie chose to stay on Maui and work the gig.

It was a strange night for other reasons. For the first time since the ‘80s the awards were presented with theater-style seating rather than the perennially popular banquet-style format with full dinner service before the show. There was a pre-show pupu reception on the ground floor behind the escalators for those who could find it, but by the middle of the evening people were starting to talk about “where we gonna go eat after.”

The biggest problem was the decision to announce the winners of seven Hoku award categories outside the ballroom while the crowd was milling around waiting to go in. Doing it that way turned out be even more disrespectful to the winners in those categories than the old way of doing it when awards deemed “not worthy of television air time” were presented while the crowd was chowing down on dinner. It’s one thing to decide that 25 percent of the awards aren’t worthy of being presented during the televised broadcast, but to present them in an area with horrible acoustics and in circumstances where almost no one can hear what’s going on is inexcusable.

The same shoddy treatment was accorded the winners of the Ki Ho ‘alu Foundation Legacy Award, the Moe Keale “Aloha Is” Award for Community Service, and the recipients of the Bill Murata Memorial Scholarship. The scholarships are supposed to be one of the most important things HARA does — surely the producers of the show could find the recipients a minute or two somewhere in the televised show to receive their scholarships!

Kenny Loggins (left) performs with Barry Flanagan of Hapa and Jake Shimabukuro (right).

THERE WERE some magical memorable moments as well. Jake Shimabukuro’s performance was the requiem for several members of the Hawaiian music community who have died in the past year — Don McDiarmid Jr., Malia Craver, Myrtle K. Hilo, “Uncle Keola” Beamer, Shigero Hotoke, George Na‘ope and Rae Fonseca among them.

Nesian N.I.N.E looked good performing as a last-minute replacement for Fiji, and a performance that was planned to be a “duet” by Kenny Loggins and HAPA turned out to be by a quartet consisting of Loggins, Barry Flanagan, Jake Shimabukuro and Mick Fleetwood.

Loggins, Shimbukuro, Fleetwood and Henry Kapono capped the night by leading all the winning artists in a rendition of “Danny’s Song” before the obligatory show-closer, “Hawai‘i Pono‘i.”

Some folks stayed for the official after-party — a separate event with a $55 ticket. Others called it a night and either went home or partied elsewhere.

Click here to see a complete list of winners from the 2010 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards.

Additional images

Anuhea Jenkins performs: