Play It Strange’s Annual Showcase to Take Place on December 4, 2025
Play It Strange’s Annual Showcase to Take Place on December 4, 2025
November 24th, 2025
Charitable trust Play It Strange has announced their annual showcase will be taking place on Thursday, December 4th at Kāhui St Davids. The evening will be full of celebration, highlighting the incredible rangatahi artists who have taken part in various Play It Strange competitions throughout 2025. The showcase kicks off at 7:00pm.
Coming together from across Aotearoa, the first-place winners from each of their four major songwriting competitions will perform, as well as some other incredible acts to round off the evening. In addition to the performers, Play It Strange is thrilled to have some special guest speakers joining us, including alumni and 2025 judges CHAII and Rebel Reid.
This all-ages event spans further than just the evening offering, with Thursday 4th December’s schedule kicking off from 9:30am at 95bFM, where all performers will take part in an educational workshop delving into student radio and why it’s important, how emerging artists can get involved, what sort of support does it offer emerging artists and how to submit your music for playlisting.
Following this, there’ll be a welcome and songwriting chat with Play It Strange team members and musicians in their own right, Evie Bamford and Paige. This will include the opportunity for students to share what they’ve been working on and perform a song if they wish.
In the afternoon, producer Emily Wheatcroft-Snape will run a recording 101 session – covering at-home studio setups and common mistakes beginners make when learning recording/producing – followed by practical work where students get to set up an at-home studio and pack everything down properly.
Laughton Kora will then run a performance workshop, with elements such as how to own the stage, why performance techniques are important, how you can show your artist brand through performing, how to get over performance anxiety, soundcheck tips and tricks – and finish with a mentoring session where Laughton helps performers through their pre-show soundcheck.
The ten Play It Strange performers include this year’s four major competition winners:
Salem Māhia Randall from Tairāwhiti Gisborne (2025 National Songwriting Competition Winner)
Ihaka Whanarere-Tauri from Whanganui (2025 Waiata Maori Competition Winner)
Betty Shen from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (2025 Peace Song Competition winner)
Sienna Fitzgerald from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (2025 Junior Songwriting Competition winner)
As well as Play It Strange alumni:
Greer Castle from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington
Cameron Beattie from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Isabella Bedoya-Lopez from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Levol Y from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Dylan Lazz from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Shakira Liu from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Check out all things Play it Strange below:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
2025 has been a year of milestones for Play It Strange, with their competitions bringing in a record number of entries (879 original songs and waiata – the most in their 22-year history) and funding being provided for the recording of over 200 of these songs. Behind each of those songs are young people finding their voice, building confidence, and feeling empowered to share their creativity with the world.
Play It Strange has ten albums in total being released in 2025 with tracks from alumni of their programmes. Check out the 2025 albums released so far at https://linktr.ee/playitstrange. Follow @playitstrangenz on Instagram for updates as each album is released.
This year, the crew also launched the Play It Strange podcast. Season 1 ‘On The Record with Rei’ is out now, and the first episode from Season 2 ‘On The Record with CHAII’ drops today on Rova and YouTube and on all other streaming platforms this week, with podcast guest and Play It Strange alumni Emerson. Across both seasons, the hosts sit down with some of Aotearoa’s leading artists and industry legends – acting as a toolkit for emerging artists to navigate the music industry in Aotearoa.
Play It Strange has strengthened their alumni pathways through more live performance opportunities than ever before – through partnerships with Moana Auckland, BIG FAN and 95bFM. Their alumni have been provided opportunities to attend industry events such as the Aotearoa Music Awards, Pacific Music Awards, Synthony in the Domain, and the APRA Silver Scrolls.
Their 2025 mentors and judges, including Bic Runga, Louis Baker, Rebel Reid, Dame Hinewehi Mohi, Kings and Chaii, continue to give their time and wisdom generously.
The small but mighty team of 5 including Stephanie Brown, Evie Bamford, Paige Tapara, Emily Pavey and Brad McLachlan showcase creativity, passion, and relentless mahi to mirror the work of founder, Mike Chunn and consistently offer the New Zealand Music Industry and its rangatahi countless opportunities to immerse themselves in songwriting, breaking down barriers and welcoming everyone in with open arms.