Song Quest runner-up Filipe Manu: mum helped my dreams come true ^Featured

His mother, Sesilili Manu, brought her four sons to Auckland just before her youngest, Filipe, was able to start school. Sesilili had uprooted her life in Tonga to move to Australia several years earlier, and then made the journey to New Zealand hoping for better opportunities for her kids.

By the time Filipe started school in New Zealand, he spoke more Tongan than he did English. Back then he had dreams of becoming a firefighter.

When Filipe was in year six his mother "conned" him into going to an interview for Dilworth with the promise of fast food. Sesilili saw the prestigious school out of the bus window every day on the way to work, and she had heard from a family friend that it offered places to boys from families that were struggling financially.

At that stage Sesilili was working two jobs to support her kids. Her older sons started work early, so they didn't have the option of higher education. Dilworth was a chance for Filipe to have the opportunities they missed out on. Filipe says it's because of the sacrifices his mum made, and his family's support, that he could make the most of his talent.

But his family's love of music might have had something to do with it, too.

The Manus would spend Sunday mornings listening to Handel's Messiah while putting on their best clothes before church. At church, singing "was just something that everyone did". It wasn't until Filipe's high school years that he fell in love with opera.

He started at Dilworth in year seven, but it wasn't until he noticed a friend skipping a double maths period every week that he considered following suit and taking up singing lessons. He also joined the choir with the rest of the first XV.

While Filipe was at Dilworth, the choir became so popular the director had to stop letting new members in. It got to the point where "there were more people in the choir than the congregation", Filipe said with a laugh.

At Dilworth he also discovered classical music, which he says "just spoke to me".

Opera singing came naturally to him. Filipe thinks he can thank the Tongan language for this, because of the similarities in how vowels are sung in opera songs.

For his first two years out of school Filipe was studying at Auckland University, but his major wasn't what he needed to fulfil his singing aspirations. After looking into courses around New Zealand he landed himself a scholarship with Waikato University.

Dame Malvina Major, a past Song Quest winner herself, tutors him there and is someone Filipe says has inspired many young singers before him.

However, his mother is still his biggest inspiration. Filipe flew her down to Wellington for the Song Quest semi-finals so he could be sure she would get to see him perform. When the finalists were read out and his name was called, he scanned for her in the audience. Both of them were crying within seconds.

All their hard work was paying off.

 - Stuff