Today, we’re celebrating a hugely popular album which was released in 2001, the same year that NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa began.

Happy 25th anniversary to NZ Music Month, and happy 25th birthday to Anika Moa‘s debut album, Thinking Room!

After bursting into the limelight in 2000 with a US album deal and the gorgeous song ‘Youthful’, Anika Moa captured hearts and minds with her crystal clear melodious voice, whip-smart humour, and songwriting skills.

Thinking Room was released in August 2001. It went to No. 1 in New Zealand, sold double-platinum, and spent 45 weeks in the Official Aotearoa Music Album Chart. Another single from the album, ‘Falling in Love Again’, was featured on the soundtrack of the Julia Roberts film America’s Sweethearts.

However, Moa was uncomfortable with the idea of being a pop star in the US; as Scott Kara wrote in Rip It Up in 2002, “America…wants the Barbie doll Anika…[she] doesn’t exist.”

Moa wanted to run her career on her own terms, and she’s constantly entertaining and surprising us.

You can learn more about Anika Moa on AudioCulture here, written by Amanda Mills.

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Pictured: Anika Moa in an early 2000s Atlantic publicity shot

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