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Who is it, who is it, who is it underneath the mask? (Photo: Discovery / Design: Tina Till)
Who is it, who is it, who is it underneath the mask? (Photo: Discovery / Design: Tina Till)

Pop CultureApril 3, 2022

Meet Dancing with the Stars’ celebrity contestants for 2022

Who is it, who is it, who is it underneath the mask? (Photo: Discovery / Design: Tina Till)
Who is it, who is it, who is it underneath the mask? (Photo: Discovery / Design: Tina Till)

After a three year absence, Dancing with the Stars NZ is back. In a bold move of her own, Tara Ward power ranks the brave celebrities ready to sashay onto our screens. 

It’s been three long, cold years without Dancing with the Stars NZ. Some might blame Covid-19 for the absence, but I think you’ll find the fault rests at the feet of my esteemed colleague Sam Brooks, who foolishly tempted fate in his last DWTS NZ recap of 2019:

Luckily you can’t keep a good dancer down, and with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, DWTS NZ season nine begins later this month. Today, Three announced the names of the nine courageous celebrities who will compete in the DWTS NZ ballroom of dreams. They’re about to grapevine into our hearts and wallets, raising money for their favourite charities and reminding us that dance is a leveller like no other.

The galaxy of stars is revealed (Photo: Discovery / Design: Tina Tiller)

In honour of DWTS NZ’s return, we dedicated several minutes to evaluating the dance potential of these famous people. We studied their photos and analysed their PR blurbs, we put ourselves in their shoes and did the splits until it hurt. The results are in. Frankly, I’d trust this power ranking as far as my spirit fingers could throw it, but that’s dance for you. Always keeps us guessing. Always with the spirit fingers.

Let’s prepare to dance like the nation’s watching. It’s showtime.

9) Alex Vaz

Vaz and Britanny (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Brittany Coleman

Whomst: Reality TV star Vaz hits the trifecta with DWTS NZ, having previously appeared on Heartbreak Island and The Bachelorette NZ.

Prediction: Vaz proved unlucky in love in his earlier reality shows, so will DWTS NZ be where his romantic dreams finally come true? Will Vaz fall in love with…fancy footwork? Alas, someone has to be  first to leave, and it is better to have danced and lost than never danced at all.

8) Rhys Mathewson

Rhys and Phoebe (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Phoebe Robb

Whomst: Award-winning comedian and Seven Sharp reporter

Prediction: If the world was fair, Rhys would win this entire dancefest based on the happy citrus energy of this photo alone. Sadly, Rhys has worked for DWTS’s bitter enemy Seven Sharp, and in this cutthroat world of sequins and spray tans, this can only lead to disaster. I wish things were different.

7) Kerre Woodham

Kerre and Jared (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Jared Neame

Whomst: Newstalk ZB broadcaster, journalist, author and columnist.

Prediction: Kerre knows how to dance around dodgy talkback opinions, and she’ll attract a shedload of votes from the loyal Newstalk ZB and Women’s Weekly crowd. Maybe Mike Hosking will join her for the annual DWTS trio dance. Dreams are free, friends.

6) Jazz Thornton

Jazz and Brad (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Brad Coleman

Whomst: Jazz is an activist, best-selling author and award-winning film maker who was named Young New Zealander of the Year in 2021. She also co-founded her own suicide prevention agency Voices for Hope, an organisation commended by Queen Elizabeth.

Prediction: It’s just a quickstep and a hip-hop from Young New Zealander of the Year to Young New Zealand Dancer of the Year, right? Putting a telegram through the Queen now, can confirm she’s given us the thumbs up. Or Jazz hands, if you will.

5) David Letele

David and Kristie (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Kristie Williams

Whomst: Retired professional boxer, motivational speaker and community worker

Prediction: This is an excellent position. Who wants to be ranked first? Too much pressure. Who wants to be ranked last? Too little pressure. The middle of the pack is perfect, especially for a retired boxer. Fly under the radar, then sting like a bee. It worked for Shane Cameron in 2015, so get ready to be stung, New Zealand.

4) Brodie Kane 

Brodie and Enrique (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Enrique Johns

Whomst: Broadcaster, radio presenter, podcaster and producer.

Prediction: Brodie is destined to be our next big dance star, mostly because Brodie Kane rhymes with Candy Lane. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

3) Eric Murray

Eric and Loryn (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Loryn Reynolds

Whomst: Olympic medalist, good rower, appeared on Celebrity Treasure Island.

Prediction: Whether it’s winning gold or brushing your teeth with charcoal, Eric takes competition seriously. He’s also partnered with Loryn Reynolds, who won last season of DWTS NZ. Loryn is the Hamish Bond to Eric Murray’s Eric Murray, so prepare for a podium finish.

2) Sonia Gray

Sonia: so good she doesn’t need a partner (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Aaron Gilmore

Whomst: Actor, writer, New Zealand’s longest serving Lotto presenter.

Prediction: I can’t forget Sonia’s terrifying performance as an enraged French hairdresser in Netflix’s The Royal Treatment, and now I’m too scared to rank her any lower. Also, I can feel in my waters that Sonia was born to dance the Viennese Waltz, and with the guidance of two-time winner Aaron Gilmore and the luck of the Lotto balls, how can this go wrong?

1) Eli Matthewson

Eli and Jonny (Photo: Discovery)

Professional dancer: Jonny Williams

Whomst: Award-winning comedian, podcaster, TV presenter, co-host of The Edge Breakfast.

Prediction: Climb aboard the Eli train, it’s going all the way to Dancetown. Not only is Eli part of the first all-male DWTS NZ couple, but he’s also the only contestant wearing this absolutely cha-cha-charming shirt, and everyone knows fuschia is the colour of champions. Ground-breaking, break-dancing, we love to see it.

Dancing with the Stars NZ begins in April on Three and will be hosted by Sharyn Casey and Clinton Randell. Three say the judging panel will be announced in the next few weeks.


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Shihad's 'Home Again' music video
‘Put your clocks back for the winter’ sings Jon Toogood in Shihad’s ‘Home Again’

Pop CultureApril 2, 2022

How Shihad’s ‘Home Again’ became New Zealand’s most helpful song

Shihad's 'Home Again' music video
‘Put your clocks back for the winter’ sings Jon Toogood in Shihad’s ‘Home Again’

Every year, Shihad’s 1997 single ‘Home Again’ helps countless New Zealanders remember how daylight saving works. But as Calum Henderson discovers, its famous opening line was almost something completely different.

This story was first published in 2017 and has been reshared every year since.

Jon Toogood was 24 years old when he wrote one of the great New Zealand song lyrics.

Put your clock back for the winter” is the opening line of ‘Home Again’, the first track on Shihad’s 1996 self-titled album. In just seven words it evokes an acute, crushing sense of ennui which instantly sets the tone for the song’s themes of distance and separation. It is a huge part of what makes the song one of our most enduring homesickness anthems.

It is also probably the most helpful rock song ever written in this country – a failsafe mnemonic for remembering how daylight saving works. For years, many New Zealanders and even some Australians have used what is known as the “Shihad Method” when resetting their clocks and watches. One subscriber to the method described it to The Spinoff as “bloody useful”.

Shockingly, this famous line almost didn’t make it onto the record.

Toogood’s old notebook, displayed at Auckland Museum as part of 2017’s ‘Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa’ exhibition, shows the first draft of the song’s lyrics had a completely different opening line – one almost identical to a line from the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ – which was later crossed out and replaced: “It’s one long, cold, lonely winter.”

HomeAgain
Jon Toogood’s handwritten ‘Home Again’ lyrics

“We’d been living in LA for ages, writing and touring living apart from friends and family and more specifically my partner at that time,” Toogood told The Spinoff. “I think that opening line came from the million and one phone calls between her and myself – it just stuck out to me that I was living in a completely different world where everything was opposite to where she was including something as fundamental as the seasons. I just thought that line helped illustrate that idea, more for myself than anyone else really.”

While the song’s genesis is in Los Angeles, the lyrics to ‘Home Again’ were written at Auckland’s York Street Studios in June 1996. The whole song took just 20 minutes to write. “I had thoughts about what I wanted to sing about, but I didn’t articulate them until I was forced to,” Toogood told Rip It Up in 2010. “I left it until the last minute, which is what I do with every important moment in my life.”

It remains unknown exactly how last-minute the inclusion of “Put your clock back for the winter” was, but it was undoubtedly an important moment. “He basically crossed out a shit opening line and replaced it with a great one,” explains rock critic Russell Brown.

Songwriting expert Mike Chunn agrees. “It’s crucial to have the listener wanting to know more, to have their curiosity piqued,” he says of the importance of the opening line. “‘Home Again’ does just that – we want to know more, and as the song evolves we are riveted and stay with it. That’s very hard to do well…  Jon does it.”

Although it only reached number 42 on the singles chart when released in 1997, ‘Home Again’ went on to become one of Shihad’s best-known songs – a beloved, and very helpful, entry in the canon of New Zealand popular music.

Daylight Saving ends on the first Sunday in April – unofficially known as Shihad Day.

But wait there's more!