Opetaia Foa'i

Opetaia Foa’i is the frontman and composer for Polynesian worldbeat group Te Vaka. ∙ The BBC called Te Vaka “the world’s most successful band playing original contemporary Pacific music.” ∙ Foa’i cowrote the original songs in the 2016 film Moana, in collaboration with Mark Mancina and Lin-Manuel Miranda. ∙ In addition to spending 23 weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, the soundtrack to Moana won an American Music Award and a Billboard Music Award. ∙ “We Know the Way,” which Foa’i cowrote with Miranda for the Moana soundtrack, was the first song featuring Samoan and Tokelauan lyrics to hit Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart.