Kua eke panuku te kohinga waiata o te kiriata Moana ki ngā Tohu Waiata o Amerika. Tokotoru ngā kaiwharite waiata mō te kiriata nei, ko Lin-Manuel Miranda, ko Mark Mancina rātau ko te uri o Hāmoa i tipu ake ki Aotearoa nei, arā, ko Opetaia Foa'i.
Ko tā Opetaia Foa'i, "To see all the young faces singing the songs in the Polynesian language in the Māori language I cannot tell you how, it brings tears to my eyes. I better not go on because I might just show you what tears look like."
He kaituhi mō te kiriata o Moana, hei tā Opetaia Foa'i he mahi whakanui i te ahurea me ngā reo o te Moana Nui ā Kiwa kia hā anō.
"Songs written in the pacific language, telling our fantastic voyages of our ancestors, our original pioneers, how they lived which is really our culture passed down."
Rua tekau mā toru ngā wiki a Moana e noho ana ki te rārangi waiata whakahirahira a Billboard. Ko tā Opetaia Foa'i, nā te whakapapa e mana ai, e ngākaunuitia ai ngā waiata e te katoa.
"It's unique to this area, this area geographically the South Pacific these things do not exist anywhere else and because it's true people do feel it, feel the integrity and take it in."
Kei te pīrangi ia kia whanake tonu ngā whakatipuranga ki roto i wēnei mahi.
"I would like our young composers to get in there and show them the next generations stuff."
I tēnei wā kei te whakarite a Opetaia Foa'i i tōna pēne a Te Vaka kia haere i te ao.