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Kiwi star Bic Runga swaps pop for opera

The acclaimed New Zealand singer is training with one of opera's best.

The still youthful Bic Runga has already reached unprecedented milestones in music and is now readying herself for a reinvention.

The 41-year-old musician, who was the youngest ever inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, is training with Dame Malvina Major and has a “fantasy” of becoming an opera singer.

The humble singer, who met Dame Malvina at the New Zealand Music Awards, tells Judy Bailey in this month’s The Australian Women’s Weekly that she is ready to reach new vocal heights.

“I feel like I’ve come to the end of my ability with my singing. I need to learn more.”

Despite winning more Tuis than any other Kiwi artist, Bic has never had formal training and is now learning from Dame Malvina how to develop her voice even further.

“I have this fantasy,” she says. “I want to retrain as an opera singer. I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface.”

The busy Mum, who has two young children and a stepchild with her partner Kody Nielson (formerly of the Kiwi punk rock band The Mint Chicks), is just back from an 11 date New Zealand tour but is somehow she is also finding time to give back.

Bic and partner Kody.

Bic is lending her name to a new charity in Christchurch – the Maia Health Foundation – which is trying to raise $5 million for a children’s ward and helipad at Christchurch hospital and is a member of Super Diverse Women, a new group established to encourage the celebration of women’s cultural diversity.

To read Judy Bailey’s full interview with Bic Runga. see The Australian Women’s Weekly April edition. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

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