Love song · 1982 · Oceania
E Ipo
A 1982 love song in Māori and English that the singer Prince Tui Teka wrote for his wife; it was a number one in New Zealand.
- Words
- Prince Tui Teka; Ngoi Pēwhairangi
- Music
- Aloysius Riyanto (the melody of "Mimpi Sedih"), adapted by Prince Tui Teka
- Culture
- Māori of New Zealand
- Language
- Māori, English
- Place
- New Zealand
- Date
- 1982
- Type
- Love song
- The words
- In copyright (words by Prince Tui Teka and Ngoi Pēwhairangi, 1982)
The story
"E Ipo" ("My Darling") is a song of 1982 written by Prince Tui Teka and Ngoi Pēwhairangi in tribute to Teka's wife, Missy, and sung in both Māori and English. Its melody was based on "Mimpi Sedih", a popular Indonesian love song by Aloysius Riyanto, which Teka had heard from New Zealand soldiers stationed in Singapore while he was performing overseas between 1980 and 1982.
The song was a number-one single in New Zealand for two weeks. Its video was taken from a television special filmed at the Mandalay nightclub in Newmarket, Auckland, and it was later included in Nature's Best 3, a collection of the top 100 New Zealand songs as voted by members of APRA. "E Ipo" and "Poi E" (1984) by the Pātea Māori Club, also written by Pēwhairangi, were the first widely successful songs sung in te reo Māori in mainstream music, and they did much to promote the Māori language and Māori culture in New Zealand.
What it says
A love song from a husband to his wife, tender and devoted, moving between Māori and English.
The words
The words of this song are still in copyright, so the Institute does not print them itself: Genius shows them below, under its own licence.
Genius shows the lyrics in its own frame, under its own licence: nothing loads from Genius until you press a button. The song on Genius.
Listen
On YouTube, from the channel ArdijahVEVO. Pressing play loads YouTube’s player. Watch on YouTube
What it inspired
- Nature's Best 3included in a compilation of New Zealand songs
What it drew on
- Mimpi Sedih (Aloysius Riyanto)melody
People, places and events
Sources
- Wikipedia, "E Ipo", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ipo
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). E Ipo. In Songs in History. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/e-ipo
- MLA
- “E Ipo.” Songs in History, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/e-ipo. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “E Ipo.” Songs in History. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/e-ipo.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘E Ipo’, Songs in History. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/e-ipo (Accessed: ).