Annie Crummer has one of New Zealand’s best-loved and most travelled voices. That voice has taken her from Avondale to Paisley Park, from local talent quests to duets with Sting, and back to her Rarotongan heritage.
Annie’s first single went Top 20 in 1981 when she was just 16, but it would be 1985 when Annie was propelled to national prominence featuring on the Netherworld Dancing Toys #1 hit ‘For Today’.
This was backed up in 1987 with another #1 single, this time with When The Cat’s Away, a group Annie had formed with fellow Aotearoa Music Award finalists the previous year
Annie released her first solo album, the platinum-selling Language in 1992, which featured the sounds of Cook Islands choirs and log drummers recorded during one of the many return trips Annie made to her parents’ homeland.
Over the next decade she toured extensively, both as a headliner and as opener for some of the biggest international names including Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and Sting.
In 1998 she took a sabbatical from her solo career to join the cast of the first Australian production of Rent, returning to Aotearoa in 2001 for a When The Cat’s Away reunion tour.
In 2003, Annie took another musical theatrical role in Australia, this time as Killer Queen in the first international production of We Will Rock You. She also took a quick trip to the UK to re-record the Queen classic ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ with original members Brian May and Roger Taylor, Brian May saying Annie had “the voice of one in a million”.
Since returning from the theatre in 2008, Annie’s output has been prolific, recording albums with her father Will Crummer, working with prisoners on Songs From The Inside series and more recently contributing to her track Hina Ki Ti to Waiata Anthems, as well as constantly gigging across the country.
In 2001 Annie was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pacific Music awards and in 2017 was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queens Birthday Honours, and we now say Kia orana as we induct Annie Crummer into the the NZ Music Hall of Fame | Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa.
