Israel Kaûanoûi Kamakawiwoûole (May 20, 1959 â June 26, 1997), also called Braddah IZ or simply IZ, was a Native Hawaiian musician and singer. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians from Hawaii and the most successful musician from the state. Along with his ukulele playing and incorporation of other genres, such as jazz and reggae, Kamakawiwoûole remains influential on Hawaiian music. In 2010, he was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, who called him "The Voice of Hawaii".
Kamakawiwoûole achieved commercial success and mainstream popularity with his 1993 studio album, Facing Future. His medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" from his album Ka ûAnoûi (1990), spent 371 weeks on top of the World Digital Songs chart, making it the longest-leading number-one hit on any of the Billboard song charts.
Israel Kaûanoûi Kamakawiwoûole was born at Kuakini Medical Center on May 20, 1959, in Honolulu to Henry "Hank" Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwoûole Jr. and Evangeline "Angie" Leinani Kamakawiwoûole, who worked at a popular Waikiki nightclub. Angie was the manager while Hank was a bouncer; his father also drove a sanitation truck at the U.S. Navy shipyard at Pearl Harbor. The notable Hawaiian musician Moe Keale was Kamakawiwoûole's uncle and a major musical influence. Kamakawiwoûole was raised in the community of Kaimuki, where his parents had met and married.
Kamakawiwoûole began playing music with his older brother, Henry Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwoûole III ("Skippy"), and cousin Allen Thornton, at age 11 after being exposed to the music of Hawaiian entertainers of the time such as Peter Moon, Palani Vaughan, Keola Beamer and Don Ho, who frequented the establishment where Kamakawiwoûole's parents worked. Hawaiian musician Del Beazley spoke of the first time he heard Kamakawiwoûole perform, when, while playing for a graduation party, the whole room fell silent on hearing him sing. Kamakawiwoûole remained in Hawaii as his brother Skippy entered the Army in 1971, and his cousin Allen moved to the mainland in 1976.
In his early teens, Kamakawiwoûole studied at Upward Bound (UB) of the University of Hawaii at Hilo and his family moved to MÃÂkaha. There, Kamakawiwoûole met Louis Kauakahi, Sam Gray, and Jerome Koko. Together with Skippy, they formed the Makaha Sons of Niûihau. A part of the Hawaiian Renaissance, the band's blend of contemporary and traditional styles gained in popularity as they toured Hawaii and the mainland United States, releasing fifteen successful albums. Kamakawiwoûole's aim was to make music that stayed true to the typical sound of traditional Hawaiian music. His cousin Bill Keale is also a musician.
The Makaha Sons of Niûihau recorded No Kristo in 1976 and released several more albums, including Hoûoluana, Kahea O Keale, Keala, Makaha Sons of Niûihau and Mahalo Ke Akua.
The group became Hawaii's most popular contemporary traditional group with breakout albums 1984's Puana Hou Me Ke Aloha and its follow-up, 1986's Hoûola. Kamakawiwoûole's last recorded album with the group was 1991's Hoûoluana. It remains the group's top-selling CD. In 1982, Skippy died at age 28 of a heart attack. Later that year, Kamakawiwoûole married his childhood sweetheart Marlene. They had a daughter named Ceslie-Ann "Wehi" Kamakawiwoûole (born ).
In 1990, Kamakawiwoûole released his first solo album Ka ûAnoûi, which won awards for Contemporary Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year from the Hawaiûi Academy of Recording Arts (HARA). Facing Future was released in 1993 by The Mountain Apple Company. It featured a version of his most popular song, the medley "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" (listed as "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World"), along with "Hawaiûi '78", "White Sandy Beach", "Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man", and "Kaulana Kawaihae". The decision to include a cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was said to be a last-minute one by Kamakawiwoûole's producer Jon de Mello and Kamakawiwoûole. Facing Future debuted at No.25 on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Catalogue chart. On October 26, 2005, Facing Future became Hawaiûi's first certified platinum album, selling more than a million CDs in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. On July 21, 2006, BBC Radio 1 announced that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World (True Dreams)" would be released as a single in America.
In 1994, Kamakawiwoûole was voted favorite entertainer of the year by the Hawaiûi Academy of Recording Arts (HARA). E Ala E (1995) featured the political title song "ûE Ala ûE" and "Kaleohano", and N Dis Life (1996) featured "In This Life" and "Starting All Over Again".
In 1997, Kamakawiwoûole was again honored by HARA at the annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for Male Vocalist of the Year, Favorite Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year, and Island Contemporary Album of the Year. He watched the awards ceremony from a hospital room.
The posthumously released album Alone in Iz World (2001) debuted at No.1 on Billboard World Chart and No.135 on Billboard Top200, No.13 on the Top Independent Albums Chart, and No.15 on the Top Internet Album Sales charts. In November 2012, Honolulu magazine ranked it as the third-greatest Hawaii album of the 21st century.
Kamakawiwoûole's album Facing Future was the first Hawaii album to be certified gold.
Kamakawiwoûole was known for promoting Hawaiian rights and Hawaiian independence, both through his lyrics, which often stated the case for independence directly, and through his own actions. For example, the lyric in his song "Hawaiûi '78," "The life of this land is the life of the people/and ... to care for the land (malama ûÃÂina) is to care for the Hawaiian culture," is a statement that many consider summarizes his Hawaiian ideals. The state motto of Hawaiûi is a recurring line in the song and encompasses the meaning of his message: "Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ûÃÂina i ka Pono" (proclaimed by King Kamehameha III when Hawaiûi regained sovereignty in 1843). It can be roughly translated as, "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness."
Kamakawiwoûole used his music to promote awareness of his belief that a second-class status had been pushed onto fellow natives by the tourism industry.
In the 1990s, Kamakawiwoûole became a born-again Christian. In 1996, he was baptized at the Word of Life Christian Center in Honolulu and spoke publicly about his beliefs at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. Kamakawiwoûole also recorded the song "Ke Alo O Iesu" ().
Throughout his life, Kamakawiwoûole struggled with obesity and weighed while standing tall at one point. He endured several hospitalizations because of his weight. With chronic medical problems including respiratory and cardiac issues, Kamakawiwoûole died of respiratory failure at age 38 in the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu at 12:18 a.m. on June 26, 1997.
On July 10, 1997, the Hawaiian flag flew at half-mast for Kamakawiwoûole's funeral. His koa wood casket lay at the state capitol building in Honolulu, making him the third person (and the only non-government official) to be so honored. Approximately 10,000 people attended his funeral. Thousands of fans gathered as his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean at MÃÂkua Beach two days later. According to witnesses, many people commemorated him by honking their car and truck horns on all Hawaiian highways that day. Scenes from the funeral and scattering of Kamakawiwoûole's ashes were featured in official music videos of "Over the Rainbow", released posthumously by Mountain Apple Company. , the two official video uploads of the song, as featured on YouTube by Mountain Apple Company Inc, have collectively received over 1.83 billion views.
On September 20, 2003, hundreds paid tribute to Kamakawiwoûole as a bronze bust of him was unveiled at the Waianae Neighborhood Community Center on Oûahu. Kamakawiwoûole's widow, Marlene, and sculptor Jan-Michelle Sawyer were present for the dedication ceremony.
On December 6, 2010, NPR named Kamakawiwoûole as "The Voice of Hawaii" in its 50 Great Voices series.
On March 24, 2011, Kamakawiwoûole was honored with the German national music award Echo. The music managers Wolfgang Boss and Jon de Mello accepted the trophy in his stead.
A 2014 Pixar short film, Lava, features two volcanoes as the main characters. Kamakawiwoûole's cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and his style of music were James Ford Murphy's partial inspiration for the short film.
On May 20, 2020, Google Doodle published a page in celebration of Kamakawiwoûole's 61st birthday. It featured information about his life, musical career, and impact on Hawaii. Included was a two-minute cartoon video with Kamakawiwoûole's cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" playing as the background and imagery of Hawaii. The section of the page explaining the inspiration of the Doodle says that "The Doodle is full of places in Hawaiûi that had special significance for Israel: the sunrise at Diamond Head, MÃÂkaha Beach, the Palehua vista, the flowing lava and volcanic landscape of the Big Island, the black sand beach at Kalapana and the Waiûanae coast."
Kamakawiwoûole's recording of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" gained notice in 1999 when an excerpt was used in the TV commercials for eToys.com (later part of Toys "R" Us). The full song was featured in the movies K-Pax, Meet Joe Black, Finding Forrester, Son of the Mask, 50 First Dates, Fred Claus, Letters to Santa and IMAX: Hubble 3D. It was also featured in TV series ER, Between The Lions, Scrubs, Cold Case, Glee, South Pacific, Lost, Storm Chasers, the UK original version of Life on Mars, and in Modern Family, among others.
In 1988, a friend of Kamakawiwoûole called a Honolulu recording studio owned by Milan Bertosa at 3:00 a.m. with a request that Kamakawiwoûole be allowed to come in to make a recording. Bertosa was about to shut down, but told the friend that Kamakawiwoûole could come if he was able to make it within 15 minutes. In a 2011 interview, Bertosa recalled, "In walks the largest human being I had seen in my life. Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at hand is to find something for him to sit on." A security guard gave Kamakawiwoûole a large steel chair. "Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' He played and sang, one take, and it was over." Five years later, Bertosa was working as an engineer at Mountain Apple Company when Iz was making a solo album there. Bertosa remembered the old demo tape and introduced it to de Mello, who remarked: "Israel was really sparkly, really alive." The original 1988 acoustic version of the song was released with the 1993 Facing Future album.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" reached No.12 on Billboards Hot Digital Tracks chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week ending January 18, 2004). It had passed two million paid downloads in the US by September 27, 2009, and then sold three million in the U.S. as of October 2, 2011. And, as of October 2014, the song has sold more than 4.2 million digital copies. The song is the longest-leading number-one hit on any of the Billboard song charts, having spent 358 weeks on top of the World Digital Songs chart.
On July 8, 2007, Kamakawiwoûole debuted at No.44 on the Billboard Top200 Album Chart with "Wonderful World", selling 17,000 units.
In April 2007, "Over the Rainbow" entered the UK charts at No.68, and eventually climbed to No.46, spending ten weeks in the Top100 over a two-year period.
In October 2010, following its use in a trailer for the TV channel VOX and on a TV advertisementâÂÂfor Axe deodorant (which is itself a revival of the advertisement originally aired in 2004)âÂÂit hit No.1 on the German singles chart, was the number-one seller single of 2010 and was eventually certified 2àPlatinum in 2011.
As of November 1, 2010, "Over the Rainbow" peaked at No.6 on the OE3 Austria charts, which largely reflects airplay on Austria's government-operated Top40 radio network. It also peaked at No.1 in France and Switzerland in late December 2010.
On December 21, 2020, the official music video for "Over the Rainbow" reached a billion views on YouTube.
In 2021, the song was inducted into the National Recording Registry as part of the heritage in American recorded sound.