Strong Voices

It might have been Lorde’s Solar Power tour, but the sun was shining on Emma at the Western Springs concert in Auckland in March.

Prize-winning artist Emma White entered her portrait of Lorde in last year’s IHC Art Awards and the singer heard about it and offered Emma two tickets to her concert. Emma’s mum, Diana, scored the other ticket and both of them bought new dresses for the occasion.

It was a huge week for Emma, who had just moved from Te Kūiti on the Thursday before the concert to a new flat with a new service provider in Te Awamutu. Then it was off to settle into the Rydges Auckland hotel and get ready for the concert. Their accommodation and transport were donated.

They arrived with a blanket and snacks and grabbed a place on the grass in time to hear Marlon Williams and the Yarra Benders. Lorde came on at 8.30pm and Emma was more than ready to hear all the new material live. “I have got the new songs on my phone,” she says.

What Emma wasn’t ready for was the fact that Lorde appeared with blonde hair. “I have never seen her with blonde hair. I am going, ‘Why has she got blonde hair?’. I like her brown hair and not blonde hair.” Emma said last year she had found painting Lorde’s portrait “quite tricky … because of lots of layers and colours in the hair”.

Emma’s passion for music inspires her art. She won third prize and $2000 for her acrylic painting Portrait of Lorde. In 2021 she also won third prize for her Portrait of Amy Winehouse. Her works have included Lady Gaga and Prince.

A smaller print of her latest portrait has been sent to Lorde as a thank you.

It wasn’t just Emma who enjoyed the concert. “It was amazing. I would call it magical,” Diana says.

“We made sure we were there a good half-hour before Marlon Williams started. Lorde is just absolutely amazing.”

Diana says Lorde talked about her insecurities when she was young. “She talked a lot about being different. I felt Emma was in the right place.

“Emma loved it. A lot of the girls had butterflies painted on their faces and she was one of them.”

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Caption: Diana (left) and Emma White soaked up the sun and the music at Lorde’s Solar Power concert at Auckland’s Western Springs.

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