Levi Tairi, a 3-year-old boy of Māori and Samoan descent, is set for stardom after a video of him performing the haka for his great grandmothers 81st birthday has gone viral.
Levis father Jerome Tairi says his grandmother loved the haka.
“She absolutely loved it! We took her out for dinner and showed her it on my phone. She loved it, she thought it was amazing. She’s Samoan, but she loved it and she knows that’s what he loves to do.”
After the video received over 50,000 views, his father decided to create a Youtube channel called “Levi’s World” and uploaded more videos, including the video below, showcasing his son’s haka talent.
In no time people showed a lot of interest, including admin of the popular Facebook page UNILAD who are based in the United Kingdom.
“We put that video up on his page last night and UNILAD liked it and wanted to put it on their page, so they did and then we woke up this morning and it had like a million views overnight! But it was insane really because we didn’t expect anything of it,” says Jerome Tairi.
The UNILAD page has over 5 million followers, so it is no wonder that in a few hours the video had over one and a half million views, with over 7000 people from around the world sharing the video on Facebook.
After starting a You Tube channel just over a week ago, he already has over 48,000 views.
When asked if Levi is aware of his online popularity, his dad says, “We tell him that people love it and he’s like oh cool and then he wants to do another one. But when you record him he’ll want to do 5.”
Levi’s passion for haka has definitely helped him to gain a huge fan base, and was also approached by a Youtube video licensing company called Junkin Media Inc.
Levi’s family are still coming to terms with his overnight fame but, although he is young, it seems Levi is well on his way to becoming a haka superstar in years.
If you want to see more, Levi has a You Tube channel called "Levi's World" with more cute haka videos.