Salem Mahia Randall from Gisborne Boys High School takes out this year’s Play It Strange song contest with his composition Girl Named Abigail.
This is the nation-wide musical contest for high school students, years 9 to 13, that has been going for over 20 years now.
This year Strange had 474 songs submitted for consideration, which revealed a truly staggering amount of depth and talent, as CEO Stephanie Brown has commented
The quality of entries was truly outstanding, which is why we are recording 74 finalists this year. The most recordings out of any of our competitions, ever, since we started in 2003.
Each song was reviewed by the panel of nine respected judges: Troy Kingi, Mike Chunn, PAIGE, Elliette Roslin (Founder of Elliette’s Music Academy) Laughton Kora, KINGS, Matt Kidd (Co-Managing Director at Universal Music NZ), Josh Fountain and Rebel Reid, who will also go on to mentor the winner.
A tough panel and some of the most iconic names in New Zealand music and art.
They chose Randall’s composition Girl Named Abigail as their supreme winner.
At just 16 years of age, Salem is a 3 time Play It Strange finalist (in 2023, 2024 and 2025). He receives a $10,000 music promotional package from NZ On Air amongst other prizes.
He is speaking to me just prior to a mentoring session with Rebel Reid.
This is a song I wrote a while back, about my aunty Keri who passed away from cancer when I was four.
Listening to the demo recording, the song is a tender folk lament backed by an acoustic guitar which has the same sense of loss and yearning as the closing song on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Slim Slow Slider.
Salem tells me he was probably singing before he learnt to talk as an infant. There was music in the family that he was born into.
He names his mother as his biggest influence, and she was a prominent singer in church. This strikes an immediate resonance with me, being such a big Gospel fan.
He was exposed to some of the Gospel stylings of Black American church music. The roots of Rock’n’roll go back to the white Pentecostal revivalist church shows that Elvis grew up with around Tupelo, Memphis. When he would steal a peek at the Black church meetings.
Rock’n’roll is basically Rhythm and Blues and Gospel music As Elvis famously admitted.
Of course, Salem has many influences and has written songs from Pop, Folk and Jazz fields. He became serious about music as a discipline and art form when entering high school.
He has learnt to play guitar, bass, piano and drums so that covers most of the bases.
His next most important mentor was his high school music teacher who got him interested in Jazz.
As well as naming direct influences like Jeff Buckley, Allen Stone and Troy Kingi, he is also listening to the likes of Tommy Flanagan Trio and John Coltrane.
Since he does consider himself a Folk singer, he could be on the Eight Miles High path.
He has an older brother Manuwa who sings, and with him they get into the classic Black Soul music of the Sixties.
Salem does sing in the higher register, but he says it’s his brother that has the real falsetto. As well as the obvious touchstones of Cooke, Redding and Gaye, the brothers get into the expansive catalogue of the Temptations.
They do play at wine bars, weddings and birthdays. So, he is semi-professional already.
Immediate plans? He is only sixteen, so the possibilities are myriad. The next five years will be ones of rapid growth.
Five years prior, he would have been just 10 when the pandemic madness and craziness hit. The effects on education and children’s development will reverberate through a generation, as it is already doing so.
His immediate plan is to attend Bible College in Auckland in 2026. For one year to study and immerse himself in worship music.
Then he has plans to study Jazz at tertiary level in Wellington. Does he have a vision of the next 3 to 5 years of a music career?
It is obvious he has potential in the music industry, which is notoriously difficult and easy to get burnt.
Any thoughts on a plan B? Interests outside music, and he is keen on digital technology, coding and the development of software games. Of the many options now available in schools which act as tasters for further development, he has interest in Psychology as a subject for further pursuit.
One of the key roles that Play It Strange are placed to do, to provide a wrap-around mentoring service when identifying talent in the art of music.
Salem Mahia is a young man with burgeoning talent, and we are keen to see his development.
Rev. Orange Peel