Geneva AM takes home a coveted 2026 Taite Music Prize

This week, Independent Music New Zealand announced the winners and additional honours for its annual Taite Music Prize. Among them were singer-songwriter Marlon Williams, MusicHelps GM Carmel Bennett, The Mint Chicks, and a combined effort by Rosa Nevison, Flynn Robson, and Sam Elliot for their in-print Newzician Magazine.

Alongside them stood Geneva AM, the mind and voice behind ‘PIKIPIKI’, a record she released in August of last year, as the winner of The Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award.

‘PIKIPIKI’ sees Geneva AM, also known as Geneva Alexander-Marsters (Ngāti Ruapani), weaving together drum & bass, classical, trance and emo rock alongside bilingual originals and reimagined versions of Aotearoa/New Zealand favourites.

That adventurous reimagining and combination of those genres earned ‘PIKIPIKI’ a two-week placement in the official Top 20 Aotearoa Albums chart, as well as a nomination for Album of the Year at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards.

Her win secures another feather in the cap of Tāmaki Makaurau label Sunreturn, who also released MOKTRON’s ‘WAEREA’, which won the Taite Music Prize for 2025.

“I know that one day we’re all going to live in peace without the tyranny of this imperial, fascist system, which has led to such a desolate present as we are experiencing in this late-stage capitalism,” she shared in her acceptance speech.

"Remember, money is made up, and the stars have always held all the answers… We need to stay united, keep creating, and continue enjoying the art of tinkering – free all occupied territories.”

“I made a statement about myself [with ‘PIKIPIKI’], and I put in a few radical ideas in there about Māori futurism and my ideas on what heaven is, and it’s just a huge dance floor,” said AM to publication Te Waha Nui after accepting the award.

Geneva AM surprised the audience by announcing her engagement to her longtime partner, to much applause.