Fijian music fans gave enthusiastic applause to boy singer Lagani Rabukawaqa when he gave a concert in Suva, as reported in The Fiji Times of April 22, 1981.
The fans – young and old, women and children – followed him on to the main stage of the Suva Civic auditorium to shower him with scarves, a cardigan, money and kisses as he performed.
The 14-year-old Queen Victoria School student had to stop singing several times as fans mobbed him on the platform.
At one stage, he was too shy to continue and did so only when his mother, Elenoa Laveti, who was sitting in the front row, cheered him on.
The show of enthusiasm from fans indicated the increasing popularity of the singer who was booked out for four other concerts that weekend.
At the end of the Suva show, Lagani was scheduled to appear at the State theatre in Nabua.
As he left the Suva auditorium, fans crowded around him following him out until he left.
Lagani, who was idolised for his fresh, sweet, boyish voice, sang mainly light pop Fijian songs.
He was hailed as the Fijian answer to the American superstar, Donny Osmond.
Lagani’s fans were much more gentle than those at a concert in Suva the previous year.
Fans at that concert had to be restrained by security guards after they ripped part of his shirt and pulled too hard at a garland around his neck.
Lagani, however, was thought to be stepping into bigger things if he took up music offers he had received from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
His manager and songwriter, Iliesa Baravilala, said the offers were from recording companies who wanted Lagani to sing in English.
Baravilala said they wanted recordings to be sent to them.
Lagani had recorded with South Pacific Recordings, a local company, and sales for his tape were booming.
The Suva concert was in aid of a multi-purpose hall for the Wainivula community at 4 miles in Nasinu.
