A Kiwi female vocal group has released a spine-tingling rendition of the New Zealand national anthem on their Facebook page.
The singing group Le ART consists of three teenage girls - Anastasia Sirila and Tiresa Fomai, both 16, and Rosetta Lopa, 17 - from Porirua College in the Wellington region.
Since the performance was published on Monday evening, the Facebook post has racked up over 6000 likes, more than 5000 shares and 277,000 views.
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The girls' performance is a breath of fresh air for New Zealanders, after American singer Crystal Collins butchered the national anthem at the Kiwis vs England rugby league test in Denver over the weekend.
The local jazz singer nearly created an international incident with her pre-game rendition of the Māori and English versions of the anthem. She has since apologised and blamed the performance on a mix-up with her monitor and the unexpected start to the anthem.
With an apparent nod to the disastrous performance by Ms Collins, Le ART posted their version on Facebook with the message: "With our anthem being in the news recently, we'd like everyone to know we're available!!!"
"When the incident happened with our anthem recently, we wanted to put it out there that we would be honoured to sing it for any of our representative teams or other occasions," the group told Newshub on Tuesday.
"We are inspired by the fact that we love singing and where we're from. Singing our anthem has always been a part of what we've wanted to do along with sharing covers and our own songs."
The group says they're inspired by the likes of Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Destiny's Child, Lauryn Hill, Boys II Men, and other R&B artists.
In the comment section, Colyn Wayne Gordon from England said he'd heard the New Zealand national anthem a few times, but Le ART's cover "tops it". He said the performance was sung "with passion as all anthems should. You should be very proud of the rendition as I'm proud of you."
The girls thanked their followers for supporting them. "Thank you so much to everyone for your amazing support and encouraging comments!"
Newshub.
