Tongan-Fijian artist makes her ‘Fearless’ music debut

Emerging from a prominent musical family, RnB/soul Tongan-Fijian artist Honey Moala is making her mark.

As the youngest of five siblings, she shares her family with notable musicians, including singer/songwriter John Moala and artist/journalist Indira Stewart.

Now, Moala is stepping into the spotlight with the release of her debut single, ‘Fearless’.

Speaking with Sia Petelo and Henry Hohenberger on NiuFM’s The Rush, Moala says she felt the need to mature before launching her solo career.

“I am only just now starting to come out of my shell. It took for me to really experience life, and just grow up first. Kind of do some adulting, get scared, traumatized for a little bit, and then come back.

“I had to break down and be insecure, and then get back up again.”

Moala has always had a knack for lyricism and initially believed she was destined to become a rapper.

However, with encouragement from her older sisters, cousins, and close friends, she gave songwriting a go.

‘Fearless’ blends the punchy sounds of brass, smooth bass, thick and heavy percussion, but the synth scales lifts the song and brings some light and hopefulness to the track.

Moala wrote ‘Fearless’ nearly a decade ago as a diss track aimed at someone who hurt her.

Since then, she has grown and healed from that heartache and says the song now holds a different meaning for her.

“I was really mad. But I was out here like, I'm too good to stay mad. We all are. That's what it is at the end of the day. Life should be lived.

“If we're going to sit around and be sulky and stuff, we're just going to drag. We might as well not drag, and we might as well roll with the punches.

“Now it's turned into an anthem for me. About independence. About standing your ground.”

Moala told Kalo Toetu’u on 531pi’s Pacific Days that her musical journey started at home, performing alongside her incredibly talented siblings during church worship.

For them, music was natural - harmonising and creating beautiful melodies came easily.

“My sister (Indira) would take the main, my brother (Ron) would take the lower, and I would take the solo soprano ‘coz no one could reach that, and I couldn’t reach their key either. We were like the perfect trio.

“They would always push me to expand and sometimes I would say, ‘I can’t reach that’.

“And they would be like, ‘Yes you can, you just need to try it. Do it again’.”

This supportive environment helped Moala build her confidence, discipline, and comfortability with experimenting vocally.

A big part of her growth as an artist has been staying true to her vision, despite facing conflicting ideas and opinions.

Honey Moala says her musical journey started at home, performing alongside her incredibly talented siblings, Indira and Lesieli, during church worship.

Moala attributes her resilience in the music industry to her strong foundation in family and faith.

Moala keeps her music PG and says it’s because she’s “down to do anything for us, for the culture, and for our kids”.

“Sometimes you can be in a circle of people and they don't appreciate you, and it's really easy to believe if everyone else is like, ‘That's wrong’. And you're the only one being like, ‘No, it's actually right’.

“Sometimes you just need to separate yourself from the crowd. It took for me to do that, to really appreciate ‘Fearless’ and appreciate the words that I was saying.

“How much value there is in staying positive when it comes to living life and doing things like making friends.”

Listen to ‘Fearless’ on all major music streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.