Wahine Holo Lio

It’s kind of a given that I’d write about a Song Contest song this week, since it was just this past Friday. With all the Song Contest statuses, pictures, videos, check-ins and songs streaming down my newsfeed, it was hard not to listen to 2011 songs and reminisce along with my class. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since one of the greatest nights of our lives… It still feels as though it just happened yesterday. For my readers who have never heard of Song Contest, feel free to read the following paragraph, for those of you who have, you may as well skip over it. 

The Kamehameha Schools Song Contest is a signing competition between classes, grades 9-12 at the Kapālama campus. It’s held at the Balisdell Arena, televised statewide, and streamed online nation wide each year. There are three different categories in this competition: Men’s, Women’s, and Co-ed, and each song is conducted by a student director. Grades 10-12 compete in all three categories while the freshmen compete solely in the Co-ed competition. The freshmen only sing one song because it’s their first year and they have to learn mass numbers as well. By mass numbers I mean school songs that all four classes open and close the competition with (the entire night is pretty much a performance.) After every song has been sung, something called Ho’ike begins while the scores from five judges (which change every year) are tallied up for the awards ceremony. Ho‘ike (to put it simply) is a hula production performed by selected students who have auditioned to be a part of it. It is just as much a part of Song Contest as the songs are, and just as much a big deal. It is also a GREAT distraction while everyone is waiting for the scores. There are six different awards/trophies: The Louise Aoe McGregor Award for Outstanding Student Director; the Richard Lyman, Jr. Trophy or the ‘Ōlelo Makuahine Award; The New England Mothers’ Cub or the Girls’ Competition Award; the George Alanson Andrus Cup or the Boy’s Competition Award; the Helen Desha Beamer Award for Best Musical Performance; and last but not least, the most important award, the Charles E. King Cup for the Combined Class Award. (This is the most important award because wining as a class is the most rewarding.)

Now the reason WHY last year’s Song Contest was one of the greatest nights of the ℅ 2011ʻs lives is because that year, my class won ALL SIX awards AND tied for the ʻŌlelo Makuahine Award WITH OURSELVES. That’s seven out of six awards; a clean sweep and more. We are the only class in the history of Kamehameha Song Contest that is able to say we won that many in a single night. It’s a feat that we are overjoyed and proud of. (And honestly just a tiny itsy bit surprised of.)

None of us expected to sweep. We didn’t want to go into the competition thinking like that. During rehearsals, whenever a teacher or administrator went up to talk to our class about one of our songs, we would hush them from saying anything that would jinx us (due to a previous experience our class had that I rather not mention). I honestly believe that we swept not only because we spent hours practicing each song, not only because it was our last Song contest, but because we dedicated our songs to a classmate who was (at the time) fighting cancer. His name was Keaton Wong. It’s no secret either; it was in the paper and all over Facebook after that night. So I have no problem sharing this with everyone. He motivated and unified our class that year by simply being there to sing with us. All the emotions we were experiencing that night came through our voices and into our songs, pushing us toward victory...

Okay, so I didn’t think I was going to go into the full story (in a nut shell) about Song Contest last year, but then again NONE of my posts so far have JUST been about the songs. They’ve been about everything that surrounds the song as well! So now to the point of this blog… 

Even though I believe that our senior Co-ed song, “E Maliu Mai” was THE most important performance we sang in our career, I can’t help but feel that “Wahine Holo Lio,” our Junior Co-ed song (which we did not win with) is my favorite. It originates from a chant composed to honor Queen Emma and her expertise as an equestrian. Here is a picture of her followed by the words to this song:

He wahine holo lio ʻoe la

Maluna o Kīnaʻu lio la

Ahe lio hula haole la

Pau nā holo ʻewalu la

Ka piʻina a ʻo Maʻemaʻe la

Oni ana o Emalani la

Haʻina mai ka puana la

No Emalani he inoa

You are a lady who likes to ride

On the horse named Kinaʻu

This horse does a strange dance

Called the figure eight step

Going up to Maʻemaʻe

Your ribbon flutters in the breeze

The story is told

To honor the name of Queen Emma

Huh, I didn’t realize our song only contained eight lines… our senior Co-ed song did too. There is, of course, more words to this chant, but these are the only lines we sang in our song… huh. Well I learned something new.

ANYWAY, I actually JUST discovered that this was my favorite Co-ed song this week in fact, because it’s pretty much been on replay for days leading up to this past Friday. I don’t know if I’m saying that just because I’ve missed it or what, but I always thought the arrangement was AMAZING(ly difficult, lol… which just made it more amazing!) The song's arranged as if there are multiple songs composed into one.

“Wahine Holo Lio” starts off with an eerie sort of tone, integrating the melody into the middle of it. The song then turns into a waltz that almost makes you want to get up and sway to the music. Then a horse comes trotting in (holo peki, holo peki), and the song changes into a country type of dance only for a moment, and then goes back to that eerie tone in the beginning. As the song comes to a closing, we sing as though we are mourning Emma’s death, but by the end we raise our voices to honor her name. The changes in “movement” throughout the song are similar to the changes in movement on a horse, which is what this song is all about. Everything about it has significance. Just listen to it and youʻll hear exactly what I’ve just described:

On a side note, hoʻomaikaʻi e ka papa o koʻu Kaikunāne, ka papa 2013, no ka lanakila ʻana i ka palapala hoʻokō no Nā Kāne, ka palapala hoʻokō no Ka Mele Huipū, a no ka pa'i a pa'i 'ana no ka palapala hoʻokō 'Ōlelo Makuahine. Hoʻomaikaʻi pū i ka papa 2012 no ka lanakila ʻana i ka palapala hoʻokō no Nā Wāhine, ka palapala hoʻokō Mele Lawelawe ʻOi Loa, a no ka paʻi a paʻi ʻana no ka palapala hoʻokō ʻŌlelo Makuahine. 


Congratulations to my brother’s class for winning MEN'S! CO-ED! and TYING FOR LANGUAGE!!! Congrats also to the class of 2012 for winning women's, best musical performance, and tying for language too. (And congrats to the the freshman director, though it's very unlikely anyone from that class will ever see this post.) You all deserved it :)