Nā Hōkū Hanohano award-winning singer and songwriter Kimié Miner recently released her first original mele Hawaiʻi, or song written entirely in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.
That song, “Kuʻu Hawaiʻi,” is the title track of a five-song extended play that dropped Nov. 14, 2025. This week, Miner is playing that song — along with ones from other albums — at the Swell Restaurant & Pool Bar at the ʻAlohilani Resort Waikīkī Beach on Friday, Feb. 6. The event runs from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. Get tickets.
February marks Mahina ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian Language Month, making the performance even more special.
The Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter was drawn to music at a young age and taught herself guitar. She began writing original songs as a teenager, according to her website. Miner attended Kamehameha Schools where she was a boarding student.
“I have a bunch of new music, and I didn't know how to best share it — or what to share first — so I decided to anchor in to Hawaiʻi, my home where I live, and this place I love so much,” Miner told Aloha State Daily. “So ʻKuʻu Hawaiʻi’ is the theme of just my beloved Hawaiʻi.”
The first few songs focus on where she has been since she last released music, she said. “Kuʻu Hawaiʻi,” is her first original mele Hawaiʻi, written entirely in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.
“That was really important to me to anchor this album in the language of this ʻāina, of this place,” she said. “And then we go all over the place — all over the Island — from there. It’s just a fun reflection of where I've been.”
The new release of music includes five tracks: “Ku’u Hawaiʻi,” “Sippin’ Somethin’” (with Kalaʻe), “Sweet Island Air” (with Hāwane Rios), “Love in Me - Interlude” (with her daughter, ʻŌmealani), and “Where I Belong.”
The interlude track, “Love in Me,” focuses on learning to love yourself, she said. It also shares Miner’s hope that her daughter and future generations of wāhine also carry on this love.
“And then at the end, the last song is ʻWhere I Belong,’” she said. “And that's really my return to myself. That I am the mountain. And I talk about the history — it’s layers and layers — but our moʻokūʻauhau, or our genealogy. Where we come from, who we are, who made us what we are, and the realization that I am that mountain I've been trying to climb. It's really about return to self and acknowledging the path that you were on, the journey that I've been on, and then coming home to myself.”
Miner, who is the mother of three keiki, credits her children with influencing her music, especially the albums: “Proud as the Sun,” “Hawaiian Lullaby” and “Children of the Sea.”
“With each birth, I created an album as well,” she said. “So I carried my babies and a piece of work that I wanted to share with the world at the same time.”
In 2018, she won Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards for Female Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year (“Bamboo”). She also won Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards in 2020 and 2016.
Nearly a decade later, her guiding words are “aloha ʻāina.”
“I think ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi — or as I call it ʻōlelo makuahine, which is the mother tongue of this place that we live — is super important and crucial as I think about my year,” she said. “This year, my theme is aloha ʻāina. It's the reciprocity of taking care of the land that takes care of us. And that can mean our bodies that take care of our soul. Or it can mean this actual physical place that we live on and taking care of that which takes care of us.”
Her children attend an immersion school where learning is in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, she added.
“My keiki will be there, and I'm going to have them as part of the show,” Miner said. “They'll be speaking ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. And I'm inviting their classmates because 12 [years old] and under is free, so I thought it would be really fun to invite a lot of the keiki who ʻōlelo. We'll do songs from the ʻHawaiian Lullaby’ album and other songs that I think the keiki will like, too, so it's a family event for sure.”
The title track, “Kuʻu Hawaiʻi,” was co-written by Miner and Brad Watanabe (The Green).
“That was a really fun process to try to tell the story of all the places that raised me on the Big Island,” she said. “I would tell him the story, and then he would help me find the words. But I didn't want it to be so eloquent or beyond where I'm at in my ʻōlelo, so I wanted it to feel really simple and to the point. It's not some massive saga or poetic thing. At the surface, it's just straight up: This is the places I love. These are the places that raised me, and it's my home, and this is where I'll stay.”
The track features vocals by Miner and Imua Garza (ʻOpihi Pickers). Casey Olsen plays steel guitar, while Garza provides bass, guitar, percussion and ʻukulele.
The last song in the EP, “Where I Belong,” is also a collaboration, which talks about being a mountain. Miner worked with Nitanee Paris.
“Another one I really want to mention is ʻWhere I Belong,’ because I wrote that with Nitanee, and her name — it’s an Indigenous name from another culture, but it also talks about the mountains that sprout out from the bones where people are buried,” she said. “So, where her ancestors were buried, a mountain would grow. I love that we came together to write a song, and this is the song that we wrote. Because we both were on different journeys but meeting at the same place. That was really beautiful.”
Paris is based in Los Angeles, so the duo worked together via Zoom. On the second session, Miner brought in composer Chase Kauhane of Hawaiʻi Island.
The first time Miner sang the song all the way through, she was by herself with her ʻukulele on Kahoʻolawe.
“As I sang: ʻCarving the image of my history. A love for this land is my legacy,’ I was literally on the land of Kahoʻolawe, which was bombed, which has craters and holes all in it,” she said. “I just felt it so much. I'm in this place. We're doing ceremony and regreening the island. I'm taking care of that special place, but it's also taking care of me and holding me as I share this song as an offering, a chance for healing for the Island. So it’s a very special deep song for me.”
Get tickets. Follow Miner on Spotify, YouTube and Instagram.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
