Natalie Raikadroka has been an active contributor to the Fijian music scene for a decade and a bit. She is part of a new wave of Fijian artists who are pushing the envelope in an attempt to make Fijian music appeal to a broader audience.
The platforms are global, so are the audiences, and Raikadroka and the young ones are reaching them.
The woman from Matamivere Village, in Namara, Tailevu, dove into the music industry as soon as she left high school in 2010 after emerging as second runner-up on the Fiji One Television series the Vodafone MIC Show.
She landed her first professional gig with vude queen Laisa Vulakoro during her residency at Suva’s Holiday Inn.
In 2016 she established the Tiny Sounds Band and took up her own residency at the USP Bar.
She began to show she was worth her salt as a performer and between 2017 and 2020, she and the Tiny Sounds Band were the resident group at the Holiday Inn and the Bad Dog Café.
While we were all locked up in our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided something needed to be said about the issues relating to copyright infringement in Fiji.
The conversation led to the formation of the Fiji Music Hub and Fiji’s first online music store “Serenade Fiji”.
One of the first songs that captured audiences and helped establish her as an artist was Lionz Roar, a Coca Cola Games anthem for her alumni.
The former Suva Grammar School student composed the song in a bid to boost their efforts in the secondary schools athletics meet.
She is one of those artists who just seems to be able to do it all.
She is not just a musician and a recording artist – she spends her nine to five as a lawyer and an advocate with Ravono and Raikaci Law. And on top of all that, her most important role is being a mother to three kids.
After her residencies and getting her degree in law from the University of the South Pacific, she released her debut album, When I Sing, in April 2022, which featured songs she wrote in the last decade. They are pop songs with a distinct Fijian flavour.
You can catch her on stage at the Fiji Fringe Festival on Thursday March 2, from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Tickets are $22 and The Fiji Times is a sponsor of the event.
