Rita Ora, the famous pop star, has unintentionally sparked a new Māori saying or idiom after making a mistake while trying to speak the language in a recent interview.
Ora, who is dating Māori filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi, shared during a BBC 1 interview that she has been learning Māori words from her partner and wanted to incorporate them into her new song. While trying to say “Kiss me” in Māori, Ora accidentally said “humi te kihi” instead of “hōmai te kihi.” Despite the error, Māori language ambassador Piripi Taylor praised the phrase, saying that “humi te kihi” could mean “shower me with kisses.”
Taylor even used the phrase on the back of his concert merchandise T-shirt to mean “show me the money” during a benefit concert that raised over $700,000 for Cyclone Gabrielle-affected communities.
