Anthem for disabled 'triumphant'

Young blind singer Natalie Te Paa's voice soars on the charity single Long White Cloud.

Long White Cloud will open tonight’s awards and provide rousing track for New Zealand Paralympians at Rio.

A new song to mark today's Day of People with Disability also aims to give our Paralympians a rousing anthem for next year's Rio games.

Mike Chunn, of Split Enz fame, was tasked with bringing the track Long White Cloud to life.

He had to find a song that could carry a social message and raise awareness about the 25 per cent of Kiwis who live with daily challenges.

When given a brief that the song should also rally Kiwis for next year's Paralympics and told it would open tonight's disabled achievers Attitude Awards, Chunn remembered a song by schoolmate Paul Fitzgerald.

"Long White Cloud personifies New Zealand, the nation and its people," Chunn said. "Very, very few songs do that. It is us singing about our nation in evocative and stirring language."

His next calls were to singer Leza Corban and guitarist Callum Martin, who helped bring the track to life. Corban worked on vocals while Martin, formerly of The Checks, dealt with the musical arrangement at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios. Another former Enz-er, Eddie Rayner, mixed and mastered it in his home studio.

Chunn selected two young, blind vocalists to take centre stage.

Natalie Te Paa from Takapuna, 20, was blind from birth but sings as if she has seen it all, her voice soaring in the rousing chorus. Blenheim-based singer-pianist Cam Dawson, 15, offers another unique element.

"The final recording is triumphant," Chunn said. "It captures the very essence of the song's purpose, which is to portray a single New Zealand voice, a nation's collective spirit and the summation of all of that."

Chunn has spoken of his struggle with agoraphobia which restricted travel and forced him to quit Split Enz.

New Zealand's Attitude Awards fall on the internationally recognised Day of People with Disability and acknowledge those achieving great things, despite their disabilities.

More than 650 people will be at tonight's black-tie event.

Attitude founder and chief executive Robyn Scott-Vincent encouraged people to be part of the movement by becoming "social messengers" for the track. "The nation has got behind sports songs before," she says. "This is an original song with a Kiwi flavour, we are asking them to take a moment to stop and think about those more than a million people in New Zealand who live with mental health issues, disabilities and chronic ill-health."

• A video of the song is available via AttitudeLive.com