Genoa Keawe
(1918 – 2008)
Genoa Keawe
Photo: Twobikeminimum, Wikipedia
Genoa Keawe was an influential native Hawaiian singer and ‘ukulele player. She was an icon in the Hawaiian music scene for six decades and took pride in preserving ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.
Early Life and Family
Genoa Leilani Adolpho Keawe-Aiko was born in a Kaka‘ako stable on October 31, 1918. She moved back and forth between Kaua‘i and Kaka‘ako before her family settled in Lā‘ie around her tenth birthday. It was around this time that she got her start in music singing with the island Mormon choir and teaching herself to play the ‘ukulele.
Keawe left school after the eighth grade, married Edward P. Keawe-Aiko in 1935 and began their large family, which included 12 children and over 200 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Her professional career began in 1939, singing in both Hawaiian and English for bandstand shows in Kailua and at the Officers Club before World War II. She played at lūʻaus, lounges, bars, and on radio and television shows. She became a regular on the “Lucky Luck Show,” hosted by Robert Luck and sang on the nationally broadcasted “Hawaii Calls.” But performing music didn’t always pay the bills: Keawe had a side hustle of selling lei and driving a taxi.
Aunty Genoa Keawe and granddaughter Pōmaikaʻi perform a medley of “Mauna Loa” and her signature song “Alika” on a 2001 episode of Nā Mele.
Video: PBS Hawai‘i
Aunty Genoa
In 1946, she began recording music and was soon affectionately known by peers and fans as simply “Aunty Genoa.” Moving through a couple record labels before founding Genoa Keawe Records, she began recording her own music, along with compositions by her friends and ʻohana. She recorded more than 20 albums and about 150 singles, including her signature song “Alika.” In 2001, Keawe, then 82, along with her sons and granddaughters kicked off the third season of Hawai‘i Public Radio’s Nā Mele: Traditions in Hawaiian Song.
Interviewed in 2004 by HONOLULU Magazine for their June cover story, 50 Greatest Hawai‘i Albums of All Time, Keawe said, “Everybody says, ‘Gee, Auntie Genoa, looks like Hawaiian music is leaving us. People are not singing it too much.’ I say well, as long as I’m alive, there will always be.” Her 1965 album Party Hulas was featured at number 11 on the list.
During her career spanning 60 years, Keawe was honored with numerous accolades including Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Death and Afterlife
Aunty Genoa died at the age of 89 on February 25, 2008 at her home in Papakolea on Hawai‘i Island. “Her legacy is the music and the love for Hawai‘i, its culture, its people and everything that ‘aloha’ stands for,” granddaughter Pomaika‘i Keawe Lyman told KITV in 2008. “She had it all.” Also a singer and ‘ukulele player, Pomaika‘i sings with a voice that is very similar to her grandmother’s. She, along with other family members, proudly continues to honor her tutu’s legacy through their shared love of Hawaiian music, language and hula.
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