Rising star: Don Ho's daughter breaks into the pop music business

She's the teen pop singer you probably haven't heard of.

Because if you had, you'd surely remember her name. Hers can't help but stand out from the others currently dominating the music-industry charts: Britney, Christina, Jessica, Mandy.

And then there's Hoku.

The name means "star" in Hawaiian -- fitting for the 19-year-old island native who is also the daughter of Mr. Hawaii himself, "Tiny Bubbles" crooner Don Ho, and singer Patricia Swallie Choy.

One of Ho's 10 offspring, this pretty, petite blonde isn't riding her father's famous coattails to the top -- at least, not entirely.

Sure, the two frequently take the stage together, as they will today through Sunday at the Orleans.

The elder Ho, who is headlining the shows (which will also include performances by the Kids Next Door, a song-and-dance ensemble), will invite Hoku onstage to perform cuts from her debut album, the tongue-in-cheek-titled "Another Dumb Blonde," released earlier this year.

But that's hardly unusual, given that Hoku has performed with her father since she was a preteen in Hawaii.

"I started singing when I was 11. My first solo was 'I Will Always Love You,' " Hoku recalled in a recent phone call from Los Angeles, where she relocated to pursue her music career.

"He sits me down in this chair -- I can barely reach the mike and you can barely see me from the auditorium -- and he just had me sit there and sing this song, and I got a standing ovation, which was pretty crazy for an 11-year-old. I was, like, freaking out. That was a pretty special moment."

"When she was a little girl, she used to come up onstage like she owned it," Don Ho, in a recent call from Hawaii, said. "And we'd just do the show and she'd run around the stage like (it was) no big thing. She's at home there."

Since those early days, Hoku has made some musical strides on her own.

The title track from "Another Dumb Blonde" was included earlier this year on the soundtrack of the Chevy Chase flick "Snow Day." Its video was a favorite on MTV's "Total Request Live" video show.

Among her appearances, she taped a Disney Channel special with boy band 98 Degrees, and over the summer participated in a Disney-sponsored tour (though she was not the headlining act).

"Right now its more advantageous for me to tag onto a larger (performer's tour) and just be the opening act," Hoku says. "You know, everyone's got to pay their dues."

Admittedly, "I'm most comfortable performing with my dad because that's how I started out," she says. "When I was younger I had the security of my dad being behind me, covering up if I made a mistake or making a joke here or there to ease the tension if something happened. He's always been kind of a security blanket for me.

"He's family. He's not a (musical) legend to me. He's just my dad, you know? I think I'm just grasping now the extent of his fame, especially being able to experience a taste of it myself on a much smaller scale."

John Berger, music writer for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, reviewed Hoku's debut disc and has been following her career.

"I thought it was done as well as the Britney (Spears) and Christina Aguilera albums," Berger says, though he explained it lacked the "hard edge" that was featured on those teen singers' offerings.

He called Hoku's effort "softer" in terms of sound. "I think Hoku sings it well and she also comes across well on videos."

"Blonde" was followed by another single, "How Do I Feel (The Burrito Song)," which didn't fare as well.

"I don't think that the (Hawaiian) radio stations got behind her as much as they could have or as much as they should have, given the quality of what she's done," Berger says.

Filling the gap

But Hoku didn't let that bother her.

"Now we're kind of moving on," she says. "Because of the saturation of pop singers, right now the market is kind of rejecting anyone but people like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera and the two boys bands ('N Sync and the Backstreet Boys)."

Hoku says because of that, she and other young performers -- such as Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore -- are suffering a bit.

"We're the second string ... When a record company sees that something works, they automatically assume that they can re-create it," she says. "Each record company has their own composite Britney Spears. I just happened to be Geffen (Records') version of that."

It's a "composite" she's not exactly comfortable portraying.

"You know, it's hard because I am blonde and I am under 21," she says. "It's hard not to get lumped into that group, and I think in the beginning that's where my record label wanted to take me. But it's not me."

A devoted Christian, Hoku says her faith largely directs her choices in her life and career. She's made maintaining her morals and values a priority.

"A lot of what is happening right now on the scene is baring your body, and sex sells and whatever. I'm a Christian, I don't believe in that ... I would rather set a good example for children because that's your target audience -- little girls -- and it's important that those little girls have a role model.

"Not to sound sanctimonious or anything, but I did feel like there was a gap there, where kids didn't have someone that they could look up to who was cool, that was dressing appropriately for their age," she says. "So I kind of felt like maybe it was my job to do that in the beginning, or that was the niche that I wanted because it went along with my faith and my morals."

Ho wholeheartedly approves of his daughter's religious devotion.

"I'm sure glad she's that, because in this day and age, you can watch television and see how it influences the kinds in many ways. The Christian part is a blessing, really," he said.

Marketing machine

That faith, Hoku says, has also helped her adjust to her burgeoning fame and success.

"No one can prepare you for it," she says. "It's very foreign -- people following you around on the street and having to be on 24/7 ... My dad and my mom, they're both singers, and they're really helping me to cultivate my talent and to handle myself in front of crowds and deal with that sort of thing."

Ho says his daughter is "aware that this business can easily be gone tomorrow. So she's preapred, I think, to just have fun. I've always told her to treat it as a hobby and she'll enjoy it ... I told her that (performing) will be the happiest time of her day -- it is for me, anyway -- because she's around happy people all of the time, laughing and singing and all of that stuff. So it's good for her to understand that."

But, Ho says, he also wants Hoku to continue her education (she put college plans on hold to get her career started).

"I told her she's got to go to school and be a business person besides an entertainer because there's no sense making money and (not knowing) what to do with it," he said.

Berger says Hoku "has two excellent advisors in her mother and father. I've talked with Don and Hoku, and they're both looking at this as something that's is a long-term business. She's not going out there expecting to be an overnight success or to make a lot of money, because she's really not in it for the money."

But it is one of the benefits of pop stardom. Hoku recently started a website, hokustyle.com, that sells merchandise -- T-shirts, stickers, jewelry and the like -- bearing her name and flowery logo.

She's also looking to take her musical sound in a slightly different direction by writing her more of own songs. (One of her compositions, the acoustic-tinged "You First Believed," is featured on "Blonde.")

"I think we're kind of moving away from the whole pop thing just because there's such a concentration of it right now, and I'm just trying to kind of differentiate myself from that," she says, explaining that she intends to include more of her songs on her next disc. Also, she says, Geffen has shown interest in her guitar-playing abilities.

"Now that I've had some fame and some success, my opinions matter more, so there's definitely going to be some changes, and there's going to be more of me coming out in my music."

archive