Tina Cross: a talented singer with the heart of a social worker celebrates 50 years in music

Tina Cross was just 20 when her performance of 'Nothing But Dreams’ led New Zealand to victory at the 1979 Pacific Song Contest.

Beating out singers from Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea, Cross realised in that moment that performing could be a career and not just a hobby.

"That was probably the defining moment for me, where I knew that really I had to make a full-time career out of music," she tells Saturday Morning.

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After the awards ceremony, Cross began planning a career move to Australia and moved to Sydney at the end of 1981, eventually forming the synth-pop band Koo De Tah with Russian-born songwriter Leon Berger.

They had a hit with 'Too Young For Promises' and released an album together, but broke up soon after.

Cross went on to sing the original Shortland Street theme and, in the 1990s, made a career performing in musical theatre.

In 2005, she formed the harmonic supergroup The Lady Killers - three very different female singers who together make a "big noise" and enjoy an amazing collaborative connection.

Although she's made her career as a singer, Cross says she has neither "ease" nor "natural talent" as a songwriter, except for the one song she was born to write - ‘Walk Away.'

The 2014 charity single, released to support Women's Refuge, came to Cross while she was mucking around on her guitar late at night after a gig.

“I had this lyric - 'Angel of mercy, can you touch her fear, give her a voice, give her a voice...' Out of that came this song that I wrote, which I think is the one song that I was meant to write in my life.”

Cross says she felt in her heart from a young age that she would find ways to use her music to help support people who were struggling.

As a child, she wanted to be a social welfare worker or a prison matron.

"I can remember going to the community centre at Otara, and I'd see the Māori wardens, and I'd just be watching what they were doing and their work. It really inspired me."

Growing up in a Māori family, there was always a lot of guitars and ukuleles around, Cross says, and harmonising was "huge" for her.

"We are really fortunate because it's kind of in the blood, you know. A lot of us Māori say that it's a natural thing that we can't take for granted.

"You can turn up anywhere and somebody's singing, you chuck a harmony in, and it's just so easy. That's where we're lucky, with the ease of it and all of that musicality."

‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’ by Kate Bush (1978)

“It's kind of like a supper club movie, unique. It's not your mainstream type of song, but I just love Kate Bush, and although I used to sing ‘Wuthering Heights’ a lot, this was my favourite.”

‘Too Young For Promises’ by Koo De Tah (1985)

For this debut single, Leon Berger "restyled" Cross's voice to sound like the mainstream pop stars of the time.

"In those days, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper were massive. [Berger] was writing with those female singers in mind but we wanted to do something different."

‘Oh What A Night’ by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (1975)

“Everybody needs a song that no matter where they are - on the marae or in the garage or at a pub, at an after-match- [they dance]. I'll be the first one on the dance floor. That's it, simple as that.”

‘Dance Little Lady Dance’ by Tina Charles (1971)

"It was probably the first song that I sang on one of the early TV indeed shows, where I thought 'They've nailed me, they've actually got it right'. This was one that, when they gave it to me, I said, 'I couldn't have chosen better myself'. I love the song and I love Tina Charles."

‘Hold On’ by Wilson Phillips (1990)

“This is a beautiful pop song of its era, and it was just a really inspiring sound. At that time when this song was released [1990] I was in a band with Suzanne Lynch, who's one of the Lady Killers, and I’d just moved back to New Zealand from Australia. This is a song that we [sang] together. Every time I hear this song, I just go ‘oh, what a beautiful track'. The backing and the harmonies… Love it.”