Bic Runga
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Bic Runga is the most successful solo artist in New Zealand music history. She has written, played, sung and produced critically acclaimed songs and albums, and garnered numerous local awards.
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About
Briolette Kah Bic Runga was born on January 13, 1976 in Christchurch, New Zealand to a musically inclined family. She considers her Maori (fatherside) and Chinese (motherside) heritages as a spring of spritual inspiration. Her mother was a lounge singer in malaysian night clubs in the 60's. When Bic (pronounced as "Beck") was four years old, she and her sisters started recording songs. Learning to play the guitar, keyboards and drums before the age of 11, she said "the first time music really spoke to me was when I first heard the Smiths when I was 12." During her school days she played in local bands, as her elder two sisters do today.
By the age of 21, she has accomplished what few artists ever had - written, sung, played and produced her very own debut album Drive. Garnering the biggest album sales ever in New Zealand and bagging numerous awards, Bic's success lead to the release of two equally successful solo albums and two collaborations, and counting.
Bic considers Neil Young, David Bowie, Ella Fitzgerald, the Mama's & the Papa's, Yoko Ono, and Billie Holiday among her musical influences. "Most of the musicians who really blow me away are either dead or over 50," she says. When asked what Other things she could have done were she not a singer, she confesses, "writing a not very good novel, becoming a landscape gardener, starving as a painter or making coffee for record producers."
Awards & Certifications
Awards
- 1997 TUI Awards for Album of the Year (Drive)
- 1997 TUI Awards for Record of the Year (Drive)
- 1997 TUI Awards for Best Female Vocalist
- 1997 TUI Awards for Best Songwriter
- 1997 TUI Awards for Single of the Year
- Silver Scroll Award for songwriting
Certifications
- Drive - 7x Platinum (New Zealand)
- Beautiful Collision - 11x Platinum (New Zealand)
- Birds - 3x Platinum (New Zealand)
Discography
Albums
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Singles
- Drive "Lovesoup" EP (1995)
- "Bursting Through" (1996)
- "Sway" (1997)
- "Suddenly Strange" (1997)
- "Roll into One" (1997)
- "Hey" (1998)
- "Sorry" (1999)
- "Get Some Sleep" (2002)
- "Something Good" (2002)
- "Listening for the Weather" (2003)
- Live in Concert with the Christchurch Symphony EP (2004)
- "Winning Arrow" (2005)
- "Say After Me" (2006)
Compilations & Live Releases
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Other artists
Similar artists
Influences
Trivia
- Sister of Boh Runga
- Her name is pronounced 'Beck'
- Can speak three languages - English, Maori & Vietamese
- She sings in French on her new album 'Birds' (song: 'Ne me quitte pas')
- Has toured with singer/songwriters Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn
- Bic's manager, Campbell Smith, is married to her sister, Boh Runga
- She is half-Chinese (from her mother) and half-Maori/New Zealand (from her father)
- Her parents, Joseph and Sophia, met in Malaysia where her father was a soldier in the Vietnam War and her mother was a night club singer
- Incidentally, she appears cameo in the 2005 Australian film "Little Fish" as night club singer
External Links
Categories: Artist | Pop | Folk | Rock
