Chapter 06
Radio Rooms, Vude, Reggae and Music Now
6 min
Fiji's popular music history was built in working rooms: broadcast studios, hotel lounges, nightclubs, church halls, school stages, recording booths and rehearsal spaces. Lead singers became famous, but bands, engineers and teachers made their voices possible.
What to listen for
The history is easier to hear when people remain attached to roles.
Radio made a shared ear
Radio carried music across water and uneven road networks. Fiji Broadcasting House sessions could turn a child singer into a recognised voice. Hindi radio supported local performers alongside film songs. iTaukei programmes gave songs a life beyond the village or city where they were recorded. Church choirs and competitions created other public routes.
Broadcasting also selected. A song needed a recordable duration, acceptable language and a place in the schedule. Suva-based access mattered. Some communities and forms became familiar nationally because microphones reached them more often. Others remained strong locally and faint in the archive.
The catalogue is therefore a history of both music and opportunity.
Sakiusa Bulicokocoko: hear the drummer inside the singer
Sakiusa Bulicokocoko moved through drumming, nightclub work and singing. That background matters when hearing his phrasing. A vocalist who has sat behind the kit understands where a line can lean against the beat and how a band breathes through a transition.
His recording with Lela Seruvakula, “Rui Totoka,” is a practical entrance. Follow the rhythm section first, then return to the vocal exchange. Popular Fiji music does not need to be separated from musicianship in order to feel immediate.
Other group histories widen the frame. Voqa kei Gau e Loma, associated with Sakiusa Bulivorovoro, carried Gau identity into albums and radio. The QEB Serenaders depended on named members and session players. Their careers also reveal the fragile economics of local recording, including piracy and limited payment.
Laisa Vulakoro and vude
Laisa Vulakoro is widely called the Vude Queen. The title is deserved public recognition, but it should lead to recordings and cannot stand in for them. Vude joins Fiji dance-pop energies, vocal character and arrangements made for social circulation. It can draw on several rhythmic and melodic resources without becoming a label for every upbeat iTaukei song.
Begin with “Divi Iko Voli (Tauri Au)” from Bitu Kavoro (2015). The direct vocal attack and forward rhythmic pull make “Vude Queen” something a listener can test with their own ears rather than merely repeat as a title.
Vulakoro's voice carries authority through clear attack and rhythmic placement. Her catalogue has accompanied celebrations and ordinary life for decades. In 2026 she spoke publicly about authorship in an era of easy digital copying and artificial intelligence. When younger artist Savuto re-recorded some of her songs with new beats, he sought her consent. That action is part of musical culture: respect is not only a lyrical theme but a rights practice.
Saimoni Vuatalevu writes everyday Fiji
Across more than five decades, Saimoni Vuatalevu wrote songs that reached beyond romance. “Tucake Mai,” “Viti Noqu Parataisi,” “Tukuni” and “Dreu Tu Na Maqo” address public memory, place and ordinary experience. “Dreu Tu Na Maqo,” for example, recalls children waking early for mangoes only to find fruit bats had arrived first.
Small observation gives national songwriting its depth. The song does not need an abstract claim about identity; listeners recognise life. Vuatalevu's long career also crosses the cassette, radio and home-studio eras, showing how senior musicians adapt without discarding composition.
George “Fiji” Veikoso and the Pacific beyond the border
George Veikoso, known professionally as Fiji, grew up around Raiwaqa and later built his career in Hawai'i. Reggae gave him a wide musical language, but his importance cannot be reduced to copying Jamaica. Voice, Pacific audience, collaboration and the experience of migration shaped his work. He died in Suva on 24 July 2025; the songs and the Pacific networks he helped build remain active.
His move in 1987 sits beside the political rupture that pushed many people to leave Fiji, though no single biography represents the entire migration. In Hawai'i and across Pacific touring networks, Veikoso became a bridge among island audiences who recognised related experiences without pretending their cultures were identical.
Begin with “Sweet Darlin'” from Born & Raised (1996), written by Veikoso and Michael Grande and produced by the same pair. Then move to “Kavoro” (2025), his collaboration with Suva band Paradise Rootz. The first reveals the voice that travelled widely through Pacific reggae; the second places that voice beside a younger Fiji-based band near the end of his life.
Fiji now: six records, not a trend report
The present is not one star. These six releases and performances from 2025 and 2026 show several working rooms without pretending to define the entire scene.
InsideOut — “Wele” (2025) joins two ideas the band developed in the studio, with leader Apakuki “Kuki” Nalawa explaining the title as “chill.” The recording's relaxed surface is made by a band arranging, joining sections and preparing a lyric video so audiences can sing with them.
Paradise Rootz and George “Fiji” Veikoso — “Kavoro” (2025) pairs a Suva reggae band with a senior diaspora voice. Its 2026 FIPRA nomination credits Veikoso, Ledua Cakacaka, Jonathan Vito Tupai, Hennie Tui and Avina Fili Kelekolio as writers. Those names matter: a hit is collaborative work, not a disembodied island mood.
VT1S's 2026 album Ga Ni Vatu opens three different selections. Tulagi's “Sevataki” moves a heartbreak narrative from slower verses into an Afrobeat-inflected chorus. Mohelata's “Senitoa” uses the hibiscus as an image of resilience and family responsibility. Kayzia's “Kawai,” made with producer Tropic Thunda and songwriter Jay Tauleka, turns toward appreciation rather than loss. Three voices on one label project still make three authored songs.
Sinu — “Future Me” (2025) is Salote Sinukula Naulumatua's first single, joining voice, dance, visual authorship, faith and self-address. Its nomination for Most Popular Music Video at the 2026 FIPRA Music Awards gives the work a public marker without reducing it to an award result.
Other rooms remain essential. Yanu Boyz built a digital audience with “Noqu Dina”; 4 Quarters works through bass, keyboards and improvisation; Spectrum combines bands, spoken word and visual performance; the Oceania Centre's Pasifika Voices and Oceania Dance Theatre train and present young artists through the University of the South Pacific. These are institutions and working groups, not proof that Suva speaks for the country.
Where to hear live music
In Suva, check the current programmes of the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Fiji Fringe Festival, Suva Civic Centre, Vodafone Arena and independent festival organisers. The April 2026 Fiji Fringe programme ran for nine days, but dates and venues change. Find named artists and leave generic promises of “island entertainment” behind.
In Nadi, Lautoka and Ba, search both public concerts and community programmes. Indo-Fijian devotional and wedding music often circulates through temples, cultural centres and family networks outside ticketing platforms. Ask respectfully; private worship is not a tourist attraction.
For reggae and current bands, dated festivals such as WANFIRE, Uprising, RESFEST and VITI Reggae Festival can provide concentrated listening when active. Verify the present year's official programme before travelling. In Rotuman, Banaban, village or ceremonial contexts, invitation and local guidance matter more than a search result.
The best night may be a major arena concert. It may also be a small band in a civic hall, a choir programme or a singer whose name you did not know that morning. Keep the calendar open and the categories loose.
