Miss World Samoa 2015/Latafale Auva'a latest interview Indian and World Pageant

1. First of all, thank you for giving me your time for this interview. Samoa is relatively unknown to the world of pageants. How would you describe Samoa and its culture to the world?
Samoa is a beautiful collection of islands in the South Pacific with two main islands. I usually describe it to people as being an island located above New Zealand near the equator which means it’s very tropical and lush. We have a very proud 3000 year old cultural identity and are brought up performing, singing and dancing from a young age. Oceania is made up of Pacific Islands in three sections called Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. We are called the heart of the Pacific and are home to Polynesians ( brown-skinned, prominent nose and big-boned people). My island has developed its tourism with versatility as we have not traded our culture or island for commercialism.

2. You have achieved a lot in your life; winner of four beauty pageants, a sportswoman and a scholarship holder studying a double degree in Law and Music. How do you juggle your college, pageants responsibilities and work?
I like to make the most of every opportunity. Being fairly organised helps, but I also love and enjoy the things that I excel in. Last year I took a step back from studies and cut down to part-time study so I could focus on pageant responsibilities in Samoa. I was supported by my university and the Faculty of Law to make the most of the opportunity that was presented to me when I won. I like to stretch myself with various commitments the one thing that holds my sanity and motivates me to make the most of every occasion is my faith in Christ, His love and His prosperous plan for my life. The second thing that holds me together is my family.  As cliché as it sounds, they keep me humble, driven and encourage me to shine my light to bring joy to others and in particular other young Pacific women who took an interest in my journey.

3. Law and music are both from a different world with contrasting identities. What’s the one thing that get’s you into these fields and are there any common links between the two that we do not know?
Law underpins the basis of society. Everything we do in the modern world is influenced by some type of law and its protecting or prohibiting power. I am definitely attracted to the influence law has especially the justice and the injustice that the law plays in our society. Similarly, music is a social influence today, particularly in youth culture.  It has the ability to condone behaviors, attitudes and actions of all who listen. Music and law are a very unique combination and I believe the further society develops the more law will take an important task in protecting artists and their musical works.

4. It was during the time of Miss World that while playing‘With You’ from the Ghost: The Musical Broadway show on YouTube, I came across your cover of the same song. I thought you had such a gifted voice and it was like listening to the original song. What and who influence you to get into music?
Samoans grow up in a performance culture but a big influence that pushed me to excel in music would be my mother.  She is a Music and Cultural Group Teacher for Primary Schools and both her and my Dad really pushed developing music from a young age. My elder sister, Sara-jane who is 12 years older is a well-known Pacific singer in New Zealand and I definitely aspired to be a singer that could move people like she does. Jazz was genre of music I was exposed to early as I played the tenor sax in High School and that is still the genre I most love singing followed by musical theatre and then contemporary.

5. What would be the one song that describe you the best?
‘You gotta be’ – Des’ree

6. You sang Disney’s Frozen ‘Let it go’ in more than 20 different languages at the talent round of Miss World contest. That’s an incredible talent. What are those languages and can you speak all of it?
French, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Swedish, Japanese, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Catalan, Italian, Korean to name a few.
Haha…., I can’t speak fluent all of them but I did my homework in terms of pronunciation. Speaking Samoan and a bit of Spanish helped, but mostly was my knowledge in International Phonics from my experience in Choral singing which helped me the most in pronunciation, next came the different language recordings from Disney’s multilingual recordings which I listened to for clarity.

Read the complete interview:
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Leader wrote:Very interesting dear, this reminds of Tonga, another paradise that was not well known in beauty pageants, until the cute with bubbly personality Sicilia Makisi arrived in Miss Earth 2014 & Miss Grand Int. 2015.  

Thank you and I completely agree with you.

Joe_51 wrote:Very nice and informative interview  

Thanks a lot, Joe! love from India...

simeon wrote:

Leader wrote:Very interesting dear, this reminds of Tonga, another paradise that was not well known in beauty pageants, until the cute with bubbly personality Sicilia Makisi arrived in Miss Earth 2014 & Miss Grand Int. 2015.  

Thank you and I completely agree with you.

Couldn't agree more.