Bobby Alu is a Samoan-Australian musician and singer-songwriter. Alu's mother is from ,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, and his father is from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He began learning

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

at age six, and has played drums professionally with

Xavier Rudd Xavier Rudd (born 29 May 1978) is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. Several of Rudd's songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Indigen ...

. Bobby Alu has released four studio albums since 2010.

Career

Bobby Alu released his

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

debut album in 2010, and his second album ''Take It Slow'' (produced by

Paulie Bromley The Beautiful Girls are an Australian roots music group founded in Sydney in 2001 by Mat McHugh, Clay MacDonald, and Mitchell Connelly. They have released three extended plays, '' Morning Sun'' (2002), '' Goodtimes'' (2002), and '' The Weight ...

) in 2013. In 2019 Alu released his third album, ''Flow'', which ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' called "upbeat and uplifting", and which Australian radio station Double J included on their list of the 50 best albums of 2019. During the

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

in 2020 Alu regularly sang with his mother Foloi. Together they recorded an EP of folk songs sung in Samoan, which was released as ''Samoa Silasila'' in 2022. ''Keep It Tropical'', Alu's fourth album, was released in May 2024. It was described by ''

Songlines A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia. They mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dr ...

'' magazine as "nothing too demanding, just a finger-tapping sway in a sun-drenched musical hammock." The album charted at #3 on the

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

Australian Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. Bobby Alu was nominated for Best International Pacific Artist at the 2019

Pacific Music Awards The Pacific Music Awards are an annual New Zealand music award ceremony since 2005 that honours excellence in Pacific music in New Zealand. The awards honour musicians who primarily work in the Pacific Island style of music from the Music of the ...

. ''Flow'' was nominated for an Australian Independent Record Award in 2020.

Discography

Albums

*''Bobby Alu'' (2010) *''Take It Slow'' (2013) *''Flow'' (2019) *''Keep It Tropical'' (2024)

Extended plays

*''Samoa Silasila'' (2022)

Singles

*"Keep It Tropical" (April 2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alu, Bobby Year of birth missing (living people) Samoan musicians Australian musicians Living people