The first thing you notice watching 15-year-old Kamahao Haumea-Thronas sing "Hawaiian Cowboy" is his leo kiekie, or Hawaiian falsetto, a sound harking to a much older era. Then, as he puts his ukulele down and his voice speeds up, he channels the rollicking and flamboyant moves—down to the swinging hips and eye expressions—of Sol K. Bright, who wrote the song in 1932.
That performance, blending musical virtuosity, youthful exuberance and old Hawaii, at the 2023 Kamehameha Schools song contest essentially launched Kamahao's professional music career. It led to invitations, including to the Aloha by the Bay concert in San Francisco, and a self-produced, sold-out Christmas show on Kauai, where he was born and raised. His second "Kalikimaka [Christmas] with Kamahao" is happening on December 21 at the Outrigger Kauai Beach Resort. At Kamehameha Schools Kapalama on Oahu, where Kamahao boards, he works with his music teachers to adjust to his changing voice, as well as expand his range in song and instruments. "But always, traditional Hawaiian music is at the core of it," he says.
Kamahao doesn't come from a professional music family—he traces his love for Hawaiian music to attending a Hawaiian-language immersion school from kindergarten through sixth grade. "I grew up with Hawaiian as my first language," he says. "So I think mele Hawaii [Hawaiian songs] came hand in hand with it." His Hawaiian music playlist has over four thousand songs: "No other music to me is like Hawaiian music," he says, with its abrupt changes in register displayed in leo kiekie, and the kaona, or hidden meanings, in the lyrics.
He tries to apply layers of meaning in his own songwriting (though he says he still needs a few years to perfect his songs before releasing them), and when he was appointed the song contest director for his class soon after the Maui wildfires, he chose "Ka Wai o Eleile" for its "many moolelo [stories] about Maui that you don't hear about anymore," he says. For the performance, he wore fifteen strands of lei strung with lokelani (rose), the island's official flower. "In everything I try to incorporate kaona, especially in my fashion"—he's usually wearing aloha wear from local designers including Manuhealii, Kauluae Hawaii and Manaola Hawaii.
He says people ask, "'Why don't you sing like Bruno Mars, you can make so much more money?' But to me, Hawaiian music is about the culture, the language and the amount of work that our kupuna [ancestors] put into it. Not a lot of people sing it, especially in my generation. So I feel it's my responsibility to carry it on and make sure Hawaiian music is there for the generations to come."
