‘The Voice Australia’ Singer Fatai Shares Her Gift of Music | B-Well Together | Salesforce

Hello.

Hello and welcome to our Friday edition of Be well Together. This is amazing. And you're not even going to believe this. I know, I can hardly believe it. But this brings us to the conclusion of week number 18 of Be well Together. This is just amazing. I want to personally thank you. Thank you for continuing to tune in and prioritizing your own well being. So today, oh my goodness. Today it is my great pleasure to introduce you to singer and songwriter Fatay Fatai.

Hello. Hi.

The world first took notice of Fatai as a semi finalist on the first season of the Voice in Australia and since then she has been touring sold out shows across Australia and New Zealand and the US her songs have received millions of views on YouTube and music has long been a part of her Tongan heritage and family culture. And she started singing professionally with her family at the age of seven. So she is here to sing. We are going to have like just general artistry today on Be well Together and just put us in the mood to start a really lovely weekend. And then as if that is not good enough at the end, we're going to get an assist with the Q and A today from Mele Pauli, the regional VP for Windforce San Francisco. So Windforce, for those of you who may not know, is our employee resource group here in Salesforce that focuses on supporting and respecting and celebrating indigenous peoples and their cultures from all across the world. So we have a great show. Fatay, welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here with us today and I can't wait to hear you sing.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Greetings from. As you can see, sunny Melbourne. I feel happy to be with you guys.

This is great. This is great. So how would you like to spend our time? You're going to play some music. Do you want to talk to us a little bit about your history and who you are and how you came to be or how would you like to do?

I'll let the music speak for itself. That sounds great, if that's okay.

Works for me. Just great.

Let's get stuck into it. I think there's this. There's always this tendency to kind of, you know, before this season, before COVID season, life was, you know, super fast and going from A to B and, you know, just this really fast paced type of living in the mind and externally. And so I guess these recent days have really forced me to slow down, whatever that means, whatever that looks like. And I'm sure for everyone that's tuning in right now, so I Feel a little bit more in touch with my breath and kind of the moment and being in the present, which I don't think anyone's naturally good at. So I extend the invitation to you and myself to do whatever you need to do, to kind of slow down in the mind, in your body, in your spirit, all around and to receive whatever it is that you need in this moment, whether it's love, rest, joy. I need peace, healing, many things. I'm not going to get emotional, but I. This is my love letter to you. I hope you feel seen I hope you feel not alone Even when you might be alone.

Let love soak in your lungs today Breathe out toxins all the way.

Let.

Love take over.

Every membrane Tell every fear to fall away. Oh, I. I want you to know you are loved just as you are don't need to wonder. Let me repeat that.

I, oh, I need you to.

You are loved right where you are don't need to conform. Let love heal you, Let love heal you Let love heal you. Let love free you, Let love free you, Let love free you.

You.

Oh, you, yes, you, oh.

Worth so much more than the hell that you've been through can't touch you no more. See you are worth every breath.

See.

Heaven makes no mistakes when it comes to you, yeah. Oh, let love change you Let love.

Change you Let love change you.

Let love free you, Let love free you Let love free you. Let love soak in your lungs today Breathe out toxins all the way.

Let.

Love take over every membrane and tell every fear to fall away Let love soak in your belongs today Breathe out toxins all the way Let love take over every membrane Tell every fear to fall away fall away, fall away.

Tell.

Every fear to fall away Fall away, fall away Tell every doubt to fall away, fall away Tell every lie to fall away fall Tell every hater fall away Fall and tell every fear to fall away, fall away Tell every lie to fall away, fall away Tell every doubt to fall away fall away Tell.

Every lie to fall away, fall away. Oh, let love soak in your lungs.

Today.

Breathe out toxins all the way.

Let love take over.

Every membrane Tell every fear to fall away.

One more time.

Go ahead and tell every fear to fall away and I'll do the same won't you Tell every fear feel to fall away.

Holy moly. That was amazing.

Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, my gosh.

Your voice is gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Just beautiful.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Shall I continue?

Please. Yes, yes.

Resounding.

Yes. I have. I have repaired this song. It's called Human, and I think I shared it with Windforce the last time I spent time with you guys.

And.

This song is pretty much self explanatory, so I'm gonna let it explain itself to you. But if I one more song to sing before I left this earth, it would be this one. And I have discovered my why, my purpose on this earth. And it's to. Share a message of worth to humanity and to sing over humanity with worth and. And love. And to also be able to give words of worth to people to prophetically sing over themselves at concerts when they go about singing these original songs. So this is human.

I'm done pretending oh, oh I want to be unashamed to throw away this mask that I've outgrown I'm so tired.

Of trying.

I just wanna breath Set me free from all the lies that.

I have ever known.

I forgot what I was capable of Got so drunk.

And I got so high on everyone's.

Thought words See I'm just very, very, very, very human. I'm so done fighting oh, I want to feel like I belong I am seen and heard and chosen.

I'm so tired of holding on I just wanna scream I was made for more than what you think I meant to be I forgot what I was capable of I got so drunken I got so high on everyone's thought. But now I remember what I'm capable of I'm drunk or love and drunk on hope and now I know. I'm just married Very human. See, I'm no different, I'm no better I'm just a beautifully imperfected human. Oh.

If you're feeling kind of lonely in a big crowd Me too.

Yay.

When you're invisible and they don't know who you really are Be.

Oo oh and are you hurting and are you broken but you're afraid to tell anybody Me too I'm telling you Me too oh, and you wish you could turn back the clock to fix every little thing I Me too. Oh, and you wish you could say sorry but you fucked up now it's too late Me oh, you. Just by a thread and you could let go any minute Me do it. Me.

Too oh, I'm telling you.

Me too.

Me too. I'm just very, very, very, very human.

I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning I'm.

Just a beauty Imperfected human that's okay, that's all right. You were just very, very, very, very human. That we're just very, very, very, very human.

Thank you.

Thank You. I don't know how we're going for time.

You got it. You are all good. You are all good. I think one, maybe two more would be great.

I hope you're still with me family. Alright, I'm gonna change it up. Wasn't meant to do this one but just going with the vibes and all this music I've been working on for for some time now but now that I've been granted all this time finally working on a project to put out there. So yeah, you won't have to wait until a zoom call to hear the music but you'll have it in your own homes. And this is one I'm recording, working on. I wrote this when I was standing in the middle of Times Square. Anyone been to Times Square?

Yes. Yeah, that's a crazy place to write a song.

It really is. There is no place like New York City, especially Times Square. And so I remember standing in the middle of Times Square and really emptying my brain to just look around me and I have this kind of love, not so love relationship with New York. It's obviously appealing to the eyes but super suffocating. Also I'm an introvert and as much space, as much silence as possible is good for my soul. But it really painted the picture for me about life. How I was explaining at the start it was really fast and lots of distractions from the important things in life. But the song is called Fast but ironically it encourages us to slow down. So if you haven't been able to do that, I want to extend another invitation for you to do that. I want to gift you with three, three four minutes to do that. However that looks like for you in the mind, in the body and the soul. Thank you, son. The sun's giving me a break. It's getting warm. And so this is my gift to you. It's called F. If I can remember my own song that would be great. Awesome.

Sometimes I press fast forward on the remote Mind is a head head isn't mine My heart and my soul abandoned behind the fire for the present time based on the destination Blindfolded from the blessing of the present I'm standing and I'm bathing in so obvious in front.

Of me.

In front of me.

And.

It gets light Daily routine no time to think shortcut quick fix no L2R greed fast go fast pace fast money fast race Hostage by the hourglass or tick tick tock fast call fast pace fast money fast race tick tock tick don't nobody wanna slow it down Slow it down slow it down if you flowing away too fast too fast, too fast.

Y.

Sometimes I press rewind on the remote.

Mind on my money money on my my slave to the fall Slave to the paralyzed on the bed of life they told me that I need to go faster? It's a mobile that's more reckless? Doesn't matter what's in front of me? Cause it gets like daily.

Routine no.

Time to think shortcut quick fix no air to breathe fast go fast pace fast money false race hostage by the hourglass of tick tick tock boss go fast pace boss money false race tick tock tick tock tick boss stop boss page force money for race h stitch by the hourglass A tick tick tock must come for space force money force race tick tock tick don't nobody want you Slow it down? Oh, slow it down? Oh, slow it down?

You're flowing away too fast, too fast, too fast? Lord, give me awareness for the future? Forgiveness for the past Discernment for this moment Joy?

All the days of my life?

Every day of my life? Give me direction for the future?

Forgiveness for the past? Discernment for this present joy?

Joy?

All the days of my life?

One day at a time?

One day at a time?

Time?

Breathing in and out?

Breathing in and out?

Just one day at a time? One day at a time? Breathing in and out? Breathing in and out? One day at a time? One day at a time? Breathing in and out? Breathing in and out? One day? Breathing in and out?

Yeah.

Breathing in and out.

Sometimes all you got to do is breathe in love breathe out the hate on.

One day at a time? One day at a time?

Time?

Breathing in and out?

Breathing in and out? One day at a time.

That was unbelievably awesome. Times Square has never sounded so good. You know what I'd like to do? I'd like to. Because I really want you to be able to play one more song, but I want to make sure that Mele can get a couple of questions in. So maybe we could take a question or two and then you can play us one final song to lead us into the weekend. Does that sound all right?

Sounds good.

All right. So, Mele, Pauli, I would love to have you bring in the voice of wind force and take advantage of this amazing guest we have. And what would you like to know?

Absolutely. Fatai, it's such an honor to have you here and being Tongan myself, you know, I know that we're very familiar with Tongan hymns and how they sound and how amazing and grand they Are. I was just wondering, you know, what influenced you or what inspires your music.

I think it's really just my journey and my story and everything I've experienced from growing up singing in church with my family. That's where it started, my family's musical family. So I was raised on. I was raised in the church and around music. So you could say it's somewhat just embreaded in me. And that's not embreaded. That's not a word. It was embedded in me. I'm making up words over here. It's so hot. The sun so grew up around kind of traditional Tongan music as well as old hymns. And then I left school at 13 unexpectedly. But that was a really big turning point in my life, and I've been doing music ever since. Thirteen, and I'm 25 now, and just simply traveling, hearing stories, intentionally putting myself in different rooms and conversations and around different people to grasp and glean different sounds, different cultures. And I think it just goes deeper than just listening to music. For a long time, I didn't listen to music, and I think that's the major influence of my music is just really listening to what came out naturally as ftai and all that fatai encompasses as a weirdo. As a young Tongan girl, first generation Australian, living in America, traveling to Europe and doing music and all the facets of fitai. A lot of years were spent under the rock, away from the world, tending to my craft. And then eventually I came out of the rock not long ago and learned from other people's experiences, perspectives and stories. And that's been a joy. I realized being on my own, I eventually hit the ceiling with what I could glean and so that. That I knew I had to glean from others. So I would say it's a culmination of different experiences from little to now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And just with what Windforce is all about, respecting and celebrating indigenous voices and cultures, that's been the journey is diversifying my world intentionally and kind of getting outside of my own bubble to experience the world and what is a shared common ground between all of us who look different. So in music and in life.

Yeah, that's awesome. It's just so amazing to have you here and to have that Tongan influence to others in the world. And, you know, it helps us feel seen. And it's, you know, it's. It's a phenomenal feeling to like, see myself in you when you're performing or, you know, in all of your songs and your songwriting. You know, growing up, Tongan humility is kind of one of our core values. And so I'm wondering, you know, that's. That's definitely something I take into account when I'm carrying myself. But for you, what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind with your music?

Good question. Just going back to something you said, which is really interesting. I didn't know the whole concept of seeing yourself on TV or anything growing up. I didn't know that even that type of language until I moved to the States and started befriending people who. Of different cultures and races that didn't see themselves in the TV or the music industry and all that. And I guess for us it was. I mean, of course we didn't see anyone, so we kind of had to, like, be the one to step up to it. So I'm only. That's an interesting perspective. Interesting that you say that, because I think, yeah, sometimes we have to be the one to be that role model, whether we like it or not, for our community. And it's the first time I'm hearing it from you. Say it to me. It's really unique and special and necessary. So I feel honoured, sis. And same here as well. I'm so celebratory of you and the influence that you have on your world around you and in.

Thank you.

And like, it's. I feel proud, super proud of us.

So, yeah, I feel so full right now. This is so powerful. And that's what brought me to Winforce. And that's, you know, you being out there is really going to just. It'll just extend a hand to those of us in our culture who are looking for, you know, ways to creatively express ourselves. And so it's amazing for you to put yourself out there. And that's what I look to do as well in my position. So I appreciate that.

Yeah, you too. You two, girl, it's a team effort. It's a team effort and the more we can do to encourage each other in the spaces that we are, the better. So, sorry, that was a side. I went off a bit. The question what legacy to leave behind. Really just love. In all the different ways and forms and shapes that. That looks like, for me, it really is more than just the music. It's bigger than me. It's. I think I've learned how much character means more than, like, what you do and how you act without anyone looking and without an audience. And so I think the legacy really comes down to the details of life. How you respond to someone in need on the street, that makes more, you know, that says more to me about a person than like, achievement or anything. And that's something I really thank my parents for, is they've instilled in me the humility and to care for others and to think of others before myself. And it's what I've gleaned from being raised in a Christian home and a Tongan background. So the legacy is just to love well and to forgive well and to do better. And I think what I haven't seen done as well as it could be is probably just the passing of the baton from generation to generation. If we're able to do that for the generation coming up and kind of seeing them well and raising them up better than the last, if we can just do it better and better every time, then I think it will, you know, we'll leave something that's not just impactful, but long lasting.

Absolutely.

That is beautiful. That is beautiful. Thank you. It's so exciting to just kind of sit here and watch you guys have this moment. My heart is just so let's do this. We are at the hour. And so if somebody needs to log off, they of course always have that right to do so. But for those of us who maybe have few more minutes, maybe you could play us one more tune before we head into our weekend and then have some good down rejuvenating and peaceful moments for ourselves.

Awesome. Actually sung this at Windforce.

I wake up in my bed and she lies down in the dirt.

I.

Walk to the kitchen to grab a glass of water she cries out in thirst. I hop in the shower to clean off last night's events Struggling to throw.

A brand on my back.

Yet she walks a mile barefoot with no warm clothes and covered in sand. She's my reflection in the mirror on the other side of the planet Same age, same height, same look, same size yet she's satisfied in him she's got nothing left no food, no clothes, no. No family to run home to Same age, same height, same look, same size but she's happier than me she's got nothing left. Oh, I wanna be like her when I grow up. Every day I walk on eggshells Worried about tomorrow. And she's laughing out Living life in.

Love Just how it's supposed to to leave. See every time I see her face on the silver screen she reminds me to be happy, grateful. Cause there will always be somebody Somebody out there who's doing it harder. Yeah. And she's my reflection in the mirror on the other side of the planet. Same age, same height, same look, same size. But she's happier than.

Than me.

She's got nothing left. No food, no clothes, no family to run home to. Same age, same height, same look, same size. Yet she's happier than me. Wow. Wanna be like her when I grow up? I don't wanna be like. Like her when I grow up.

Rich in love, Rich in joy.

Oh.

Rich in something beyond this earth.

Rich.

In peace.

O.

Laughter in family Reaching something beyond this earth Reach in love.

Amazing. Thank you for sharing your many, many gifts with us today. What a joy. What a joy.

Thank you.

My pleasure. So to all of you, may you have a happy and healthy weekend and we will see you back here next week. Bye.

Bye.