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How Bizarre: Pauly Fuemana and the Song That Stormed the World
Pauly Fuemana of the group Ōtara Millionaires Club (OMC) was the charismatic singer and creator, with producer Alan Jansson, of the hit record How Bizarre. After the record's release in 1995 it stormed to number one in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and European countries and Fuemana appeared twice on Britain's top-rated TV show Top of the Pops. It was named Single of the Year at the New Zealand Music Awards and remains the country's most internationally successful indie record of all time, having sold over 4 million copies and appeared on at least 100 compilations.
Despite the song's phenomenal success, Fuemana was deeply troubled and found fame hard to handle. His friend, mentor and music publisher Simon Grigg gives a riveting blow-by-blow account of the singer's life and the song's beginnings, runaway success, and effect on Fuemana and the people around him. Along the way there are fascinating and often shocking insights into the ruthlessness of the music industry. This is an inside story never told before.
Despite the song's phenomenal success, Fuemana was deeply troubled and found fame hard to handle. His friend, mentor and music publisher Simon Grigg gives a riveting blow-by-blow account of the singer's life and the song's beginnings, runaway success, and effect on Fuemana and the people around him. Along the way there are fascinating and often shocking insights into the ruthlessness of the music industry. This is an inside story never told before.
- GenresNonfiction
264 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 23, 2016
I remember going to America for a month at the beginning of December 1995, and coming back just after new year 1996. When I got back to New Zealand the song was EVERYWHERE - I honestly can't remember a pop culture meme embedding itself in the New Zealand psyche so quickly.
For years after there were rumours of Pauly Fuemana's erratic behaviour on the overseas touring circuit, and a conspicuous lack of new product from OMC. This book tells the story of the making of this hit record, and of the frustration at trying to create a long-term career for the deeply complicated artist who was clearly an extremely charismatic man and excellent collaborator, but not the musical genius he through himself to be. (It's telling that the album credits for the sole OMC album state "all vocals and instruments performed by Pauly Fuemana except ..." and then go on to list about twenty session musicians.
This is a fascinating story and a genuinely compelling read about a single that was, for a brief moment, the biggest song in the world.
For years after there were rumours of Pauly Fuemana's erratic behaviour on the overseas touring circuit, and a conspicuous lack of new product from OMC. This book tells the story of the making of this hit record, and of the frustration at trying to create a long-term career for the deeply complicated artist who was clearly an extremely charismatic man and excellent collaborator, but not the musical genius he through himself to be. (It's telling that the album credits for the sole OMC album state "all vocals and instruments performed by Pauly Fuemana except ..." and then go on to list about twenty session musicians.
This is a fascinating story and a genuinely compelling read about a single that was, for a brief moment, the biggest song in the world.
October 7, 2016
Don't want to say too much because I'm reviewing this book for a journal, but I will say that this book is well-written, is a page-turner, and a fascinating insight into the highs and lows of a cometary career that rose to the heights and fell back to earth very rapidly, as well as being a scathing look at the way the record industry can shred the hopes of those who come into contact with it. Recommended.
For anyone interested, here's the full review I mentioned above... http://www.landfallreview.com/otara-m...
For anyone interested, here's the full review I mentioned above... http://www.landfallreview.com/otara-m...
February 1, 2023
Although I was born in 1989 in NYC, I didn't listen to much English language music until after 2000, so unfortunately I totally missed out on OMC back in the 90s. :(, I heard of then through VH1 in '02/'03 but for some reason didn't get into their music until fairly recently. This book is very very good!! I bought it and instantly got so roped in that I read the first 9 chapters as soon as I downloaded it!! I took me a day and half (and little sleep!)
First things first, let's state the obvious, OMC was TWO people, Pauly Fuemana and Alan Jansson, secondly, OMC (and specifically Pauly as a singer) was 10000% UNDERRATED. How Bizarre is a great song, but like they said on VH1, "when you have a song so catchy that you hear it once and it's in your head for the rest of the day, you pay a penance. So when you release another single people will tell you, 'not again, you tricked me the last time!'"
What I took from this book was: 1) The truth is, musically, there was ZERO reason why OMC never released another full album, I own the full album and play it all the way without skipping or pausing and know and jam to every single track. It's my work playlist!! The music, the lyrics, the singing. Every track for me is a 10 out of 10. Fire!!
Pauly, by admittance of all involved and yours truly was a tall, handsome, charismatic 100% Polynesian man with a very distinctive voice, flow, style and feel. However his temper, sometimes volatile, was a big big issue to everyone that came across him, personally or professionally. He and Alan and Simon Grigg, often got into it, including threats on physical violence on behalf of Pauly. But this is not to say that Alan, Simon and everyone that knew him INCLUDING his later wife Kristine are not to blame as well for the overall end to OMC. Perhaps instead of calming Pauly during these outbursts to avoid drama etc, why not just get all up in his face and let him know what's up instead of baby-ing a grown 25+ year old man? Perhaps OMC may have been able to put out another album or at least have one made that was never released. (Which is better than nothing)
I mean no disrespect in any of this, but did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps the neurological condition that eventually took this immense talent from the world, was at least part of the reason he was acting the way he was??
The book itself is a great insight to how hard musicians in NZ have to work to be able to get noticed outside of the country. Which is sad. They spent years working on one song and even went as far as to not let anyone hear it until it was given to the radio stations!!
The book is full of fun times that are easy to visualize, truly the hardest working musicians, promoters etc and laugh at and some downright scary moments. Overall a 5/5 and I definitely recommend it to anyone that loves NZ, 90s music, OMC etc but I promise you one thing, YOU WILL GET "HOW BIZARRE" STUCK IN YOUR HEAD ALL OVER AGAIN!
Edit: Simon Grigg liked my review and liked my link to it on Twitter as well as my review on Amazon.
First things first, let's state the obvious, OMC was TWO people, Pauly Fuemana and Alan Jansson, secondly, OMC (and specifically Pauly as a singer) was 10000% UNDERRATED. How Bizarre is a great song, but like they said on VH1, "when you have a song so catchy that you hear it once and it's in your head for the rest of the day, you pay a penance. So when you release another single people will tell you, 'not again, you tricked me the last time!'"
What I took from this book was: 1) The truth is, musically, there was ZERO reason why OMC never released another full album, I own the full album and play it all the way without skipping or pausing and know and jam to every single track. It's my work playlist!! The music, the lyrics, the singing. Every track for me is a 10 out of 10. Fire!!
Pauly, by admittance of all involved and yours truly was a tall, handsome, charismatic 100% Polynesian man with a very distinctive voice, flow, style and feel. However his temper, sometimes volatile, was a big big issue to everyone that came across him, personally or professionally. He and Alan and Simon Grigg, often got into it, including threats on physical violence on behalf of Pauly. But this is not to say that Alan, Simon and everyone that knew him INCLUDING his later wife Kristine are not to blame as well for the overall end to OMC. Perhaps instead of calming Pauly during these outbursts to avoid drama etc, why not just get all up in his face and let him know what's up instead of baby-ing a grown 25+ year old man? Perhaps OMC may have been able to put out another album or at least have one made that was never released. (Which is better than nothing)
I mean no disrespect in any of this, but did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps the neurological condition that eventually took this immense talent from the world, was at least part of the reason he was acting the way he was??
The book itself is a great insight to how hard musicians in NZ have to work to be able to get noticed outside of the country. Which is sad. They spent years working on one song and even went as far as to not let anyone hear it until it was given to the radio stations!!
The book is full of fun times that are easy to visualize, truly the hardest working musicians, promoters etc and laugh at and some downright scary moments. Overall a 5/5 and I definitely recommend it to anyone that loves NZ, 90s music, OMC etc but I promise you one thing, YOU WILL GET "HOW BIZARRE" STUCK IN YOUR HEAD ALL OVER AGAIN!
Edit: Simon Grigg liked my review and liked my link to it on Twitter as well as my review on Amazon.
February 23, 2019
this wasn't bad, but let's be honest... this was a 20 page article padded out to a book.
September 27, 2015
Excellent insider view of the rise and fall of a NZ star from someone who was there. Simon Grigg is honest and forthright about the reasons for the incredible success of OMC and why Pauly Fuemana's career subsequently self-destructed. It would be great to read more about this topic from a variety of perspectives, as Grigg is fairly fixed in his opinions - probably with good reason, if the stories he relates are true. But it would be great to hear from members of the Fuemana family, for example, described in the book as 'music royalty' in South Auckland. All up, this is a superb read and Grigg an excellent, consistently interesting storyteller.
September 8, 2015
One of the best books I've read in years - brilliantly written, and a fascinating story. Exhilarating highs, embarrassing lows and some eye-opening explanations around the industry too. Brilliant context around a phenomenon.
December 13, 2015
A gripping read about the meteoric if ultimately tragic career of Pauly Fuemana. Also gives a valuable insider's perspective on the broader NZ music scene of the 1990s.
June 17, 2017
In all honesty this book is much about Simon Grigg and his career as it is about Pauly Fuemana and that’s no bad thing. He has a lot to say and most of it very interesting. Clearly never one to shy away from self-promotion or taking credit, he speaks a lot of sense about the messy politics behind the record industry, explaining how difficult, ugly and confusing the situation gets when it comes down to the money.
In some ways this is an all too predictable tragedy of a young, naïve wannabe, who staggers blindly into the jungle of the entertainment world and gets exploited, chewed up and spat out and becomes another cautionary tale, though this is no way to suggest that he was blameless, far from it. There is no danger of this being read as a hagiography, warts n all, I believe is the common phrase. Grigg certainly can’t be accused of sugar coating and his unflinching honesty strikes deep. If we’re to believe everything that Grigg says, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t, then it sounds like working with Fuemana was a deeply unpleasant experience, between his rampant insecurities, self -delusions, problems with violence and his inability to relax, he sounds like a living nightmare of a character to deal with. He was so uptight that he was unable to warm to “Stole My Car” the harmless parody of his song.
Grigg marks the trajectory of Fuemana’s brief but intense career, revealing a whole circus of dramas and volatile incidents that seemed to constantly explode from this unpredictable source of trouble and chaos. This is a fairly heart breaking and dark journey into the perils of fame and indulgence, showing what can and does happen when excess takes precedence over restraint too many times.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews