Fiji is home to countless musical voices, but every so often a story emerges from the shadows.
Like that of Etta Gonerogo, whose journey to becoming a musician was shaped long before she ever stepped onto a stage.
Though her roots stretch back to Vadravadra in Gau, Lomaiviti, Etta’s earliest memories were made far from the sea.
“I grew up with my grandparents who managed a sugar cane farm in Vanua Levu,” she said.
“It was a childhood filled with chickens, ducks, goats, cows, and even a pet parrot and puppy.
“I would say I had a beautiful childhood.”
While her six younger siblings, two brothers and four sisters, grew up in Suva with her parents, Etta’s world began and was shaped on Fiji’s second largest island.
Her upbringing was simple and rural, yet rich with the kind of warmth that nurtures imagination.
Her grandparents’ farm became a playground of chores and the beginnings of a dream she didn’t yet know she had.
Etta’s first years of schooling were at Vunavere Primary, before she moved to Lami to be with her parents.
“My dad was a soldier and my mum was a very spiritual woman and was a housewife.
“My parents would tell a story of my aunty telling my parents to name me “Sandy Posey Williamson (a popular American pop and country singer in the 1960s) .”
“I come from a family with a singing background.
“My cousin-brother is Peni Seniasi (who has a number of hit songs, including Noqu I Tau and Titilia), and so I grew up watching my family singing.
“So I guess I always knew. And it was further solidified by my momo back in Lami who used to put on this VCR called “Young Talent Time.”
“And that’s me, imitating in my head. That’s me. I’m the singer.”
Her schooling continued at Lami Primary, then Delanavesi Government School, before she moved on to Ratu Sukuna Memorial School, where she completed her secondary education. But it was her next step that would change everything.
Etta enrolled at the then Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT), pursuing her passion for music with a seriousness she had never had before.
That’s where she encountered the opportunity that would officially launch her career.
“In 1998, I came upon an opportunity to join the Raikivi Boyz.
“That’s where my life in music began and we moved to the West because the band landed a contract there.
“So I stayed with Raikivi Boyz being who were the houseband for Fiji Sheraton for three years.”
And then, driven by ambition and belief, she took a step few young women dared to take.
Etta formed her own band.
“It all began with Ken Janson.
“He told me I was the first female who walked into the dragon shop and started asking for equipment for a band.”
She bought her equipment, moved to Nadi, pulled together her musicians, and they landed their first audition at the Fiji Mocambo Resort.
So she was in her early twenties at the time, running her own band, living in Nasoso, and performing in hotels across the Western Division.
But as her professional life rose, her personal life began to unravel.
“Every road has its challenges, and for me, it was men.
“I get so involved with them because I’m a hopeless lover… and it really, really affected my singing career. My growth.”
That vulnerability, she admits, led her spiralling. And by 2005, she moved back to Suva.
Yet just before life began to fall apart, she reached what could have been the biggest milestone of her career.
Etta recorded an album with the late legendary Daniel Rae Costello, one of Fiji’s most internationally recognised musicians.
The master disc was done. The marketing plan was in place. She stood on the brink of what could have been her breakthrough. But fate intervened through political unrest.
As Fiji reeled from the 2006 military takeover, Danny cleared out his Lautoka studio for safety.
In the chaos, the master record, the only copy of Etta’s completed album, was destroyed.
“It was because of that, coupled with the struggles and hard times I faced before that, that I took a break from music for about five years.”
The loss was devastating. A dream years in the making, created alongside one of Fiji’s greatest musicians, vanished in an instant.
A career that had been rising collapsed under the weight of political instability and personal turmoil. According to her, she had reached rock bottom, emotionally, financially, and artistically.
Yet even in silence, something in her refused to surrender. Because Etta Gonerogo was never just a voice on a stage — and resilience in women like her, has a way of resurfacing.
In next week’s edition of The Fiji Times we will follow Etta as she begins her climb out of darkness, rediscovering her purpose, reconnecting with her craft, and relearning the power of her own voice.
