CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nikki Holbrook reacted as she was crowned Miss Hawaii 2019 at the Miss Hawaii Scholarship Program held on June 15. Pinning the crown is Miss Hawaii 2018 Penelope Ng Pack. Also pictured is Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, Miss Hawaii 1984, and Randy Nishii. The three women contributred to an imaginative music video with other Miss Hawaii winners.
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Thirty members of Forever Miss Hawaii — a sorority of women who hold the title Miss Hawaii — pooled their talents in an imaginative music video, “Miss Hawaii Medley,” that shares their aloha with Hawaii in the time of COVID-19.
Released this morning on YouTube, “Miss Hawaii Medley” shows titleholders from 1973 to 2019 performing their personal version of the Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo‘ole medley “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”/ “What A Wonderful World.”
Miss Hawaii 2018 Penelope Ng Pack coordinated the project, which involved having each woman record herself performing the medley in isolation. Ng Pack edited the videos to create the 6-1/2-minute music video; Hawaii recording industry veteran Kale Chang engineering the final vocal mix.
Ng Pack is one of 14 Miss Hawaiis who sang on the video. Among the other vocalists are Carolyn Sapp Daniels (Miss Hawaii 1991/Miss America 1992), Angela Baraquio Grey (Miss Hawaii 2000/Miss America 2001), Cathy Foy (1975), Erika Kauffman (1997), Candes Gentry (1999), Billie Takaki Lueder (2000) and Allison Chu (2016). Kanoe Kaumeheiwa Miller (1973), Debbie Nakanelua-Richards (1984) and Skyler Kamaka (2012) dance hula, Denby Dung Cabaldon (2001) plays the melody on saxophone, and Ligaya Stice (1989) interprets it as yoga.
Hawaii’s reigning Miss Hawaii 2019 Nikki Kehaulani Holbrook and Courtney Glaza Naso (1994) contribute on the piano.
“The Miss Hawaii Organization is rooted in community service,” Holbrook said in the press release announcing the project. “It is our hope that by sharing this video, we will be able to lift the spirits of those who watch it.”
