How Did Elvis Influence On Polynesian Culture

As I went through high school and wanted to start engaging in my school extracurriculars, I became interested in a Polynesian dance club. From freshman year to senior year I have fell in love with the culture and the dance and the music. Throughout the years we used a lot of Elvis songs and to this day my favorite performance was to Elvis’s song “Shake it Up”. I learned that the Polynesian Culture idolizes Elvis and his music, which got me thinking as to why this is. I decided to research as to why, not only did Elvis have an influence on Polynesian Culture, but the Polynesian Culture had an influence on Elvis and his music during his career.

As most of us have seen the movie Lilo and Stitch, Lilo has an obsession with Elvis Presley and she

This later extended to Elvis and his take on things and while on the topic of iconic Hawaiian songwriters and singers I would regret it if I did not mention Don Ho, which I also remember dancing to, he is not an original Hawaiian but his dedication to the culture gives him authority. But music was not the only thing that spread the popularity of Hawaiian life, film wanted to capture this as well (Hansen). And as I have touched on before, one of Elvis’s most popular movies was “Blue Hawaii”, which is included in the three movies he did in Hawaii, all three of these movies were produced by Paramount which produced many films that were set in Hawaii during this time period

One of the songs that was mostly requested was “Hawaii Wedding Song”, at first it was impromptu at a couple of his performances but then it became a regular thing because it is what the people wanted, and what Elvis wanted, another song like this was “I’ll Remember You” (Hansen). But most of the Hawaiian songs that Elvis performed in the seventies was in the T.V. special “Aloha from Hawaii” in 1973, and about five to six of “Elvis’s popular Hawaiian songs were featured on this special”, and again when the special was re-released twenty five years later