275 Times July 2017
Mangere community news. In this month's issue, read more about: matariki, Mangere's history, La Coco, young leaders at Bader Intermediate, Ihumatao, Tigi's guitar and the Love Zero Waste Awards.
Mangere community news. In this month's issue, read more about: matariki, Mangere's history, La Coco, young leaders at Bader Intermediate, Ihumatao, Tigi's guitar and the Love Zero Waste Awards.
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Watching La Coco’s<br />
performance at the<br />
Vodafone Pacific<br />
Music Awards last<br />
month, I was in tears.<br />
I couldn’t stop telling<br />
her parents how good<br />
she was. We were all so proud.<br />
6<br />
An opportunity for you to come meet our staff, explore our facilities,<br />
and talk to staff about why we believe Bader Intermediate is the right<br />
school for your child. Enrolment packs will be available on the night.<br />
There will be a free BBQ, so don’t worry about dinner,<br />
just come on down and say Hi, check us out and make an<br />
informed decision about the next steps for your child.<br />
By Shirl’e Fruean<br />
Her given name is Latoia Virginia Sasa-Tepania, but<br />
her granddad nicknamed her ‘Coco’ when she was just<br />
a week old – “because she looked more Samoan than<br />
Māori”, her mum says with a chuckle. That’s how she<br />
came up with the stage name ‘La Coco’.<br />
Her love of music was evident from a very young age.<br />
At three years old, she was already singing in church<br />
services, and since then there’s been no turning back<br />
from pursuing her dreams.<br />
Luckily, the Māngere singer is also passionate about<br />
learning. To make the most of her natural talents, she<br />
studied both music and performing arts after leaving<br />
school – as well as earning a Bachelor of Education.<br />
I remember meeting La Coco at a hip-hop gig on Ponsonby<br />
Road in 2010. Her bubbly personality was the first thing I<br />
noticed, but after hearing her sing, I fell in love with her<br />
beautiful, soulful voice.<br />
Listening to her sing, it’s hard to believe that she has<br />
achalasia, a rare disorder of the aesophagus that affects<br />
her ability to do simple things like eat and drink. The<br />
condition is tough to deal with, but<br />
she gets through with the support<br />
of close family and friends, her<br />
faith, and her focus on her music.<br />
The results speak for themselves:<br />
at this year’s Pacific Music Awards,<br />
La Coco was nominated for Best<br />
Pacific Artist, Best Gospel Artist<br />
and Best Produced Album.<br />
It was a massive achievement.<br />
“To have even performed<br />
on the stage in my first<br />
year – with all my music<br />
family – was an answered<br />
prayer”, she says. “There’s<br />
nothing I wanted to do<br />
more than to perform<br />
my testimony piece,<br />
with the man upstairs<br />
at the centre of it all.”<br />
If you want to hear<br />
this talented artist for<br />
yourself, you’ll find her<br />
first EP (Love and Other<br />
Things), on iTunes<br />
and Google Play.<br />
She is currently working<br />
on a video for ‘Enough’,<br />
her next single from the<br />
forthcoming EP Love and<br />
Other Things Part 2.<br />
La Coco performs at the <strong>2017</strong> Vodafone Pacific Music Awards<br />
in Manukau. (Photo: James Ensing-Trussell / Topic)