Bic Runga
| Bic Runga | |
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Bic Runga performing on the 2010 Winery Tour, in Auckland, New Zealand.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Briolette Kah Bic Runga |
| Born | 13 January 1976 |
| Origin | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Genres | Pop rock, folk rock |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Sony New Zealand |
| Website | www |
Briolette Kah Bic Runga MNZM (born 13 January 1976), recording as Bic Runga, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist pop artist. Her first three studio albums debuted at number one on the New Zealand Top 40 Album charts. Runga has also found success internationally in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom with her song "Sway".
Runga was born in Christchurch. Her mother, Sophia Tang, was a Chinese Malaysian lounge singer in Malaysia when she met Joseph Runga, a Māori. They moved to New Zealand to live. Runga is of Ngāti Kahungunu descent.
Runga grew up in Hornby, Christchurch surrounded by a musically-inclined family, and started recording songs with her sisters, Boh and Pearl, when she was four years old. Runga's older sister Boh is now a vocalist in the New Zealand rock group Stellar, while Pearl is a session singer.
She learned how to play drums at the age of eleven, and guitar at about fourteen. Runga also learned to play the keyboard around this time. She attended Cashmere High School, joining high school bands and performing with local jazz groups by her mid-teens.
Under the name of "Love Soup", Runga and Kelly Horgan entered the 1993 Smokefreerockquest in Christchurch, winning third place and a music contract with Pagan Records. Using a QE II Arts Council grant, Runga recorded the first Drive EP in Wellington. Unsatisfied with the direction that her music was being taken, she moved to Auckland in 1994 and spent a year writing and performing.
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