This Ladi is a champ

Expect to see Kiwi singer Ladi6 going through plenty of metamorphoses in coming years - her latest European tour, performing with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, has given her even more confidence on stage.
Ladi6 - known to her family as Karoline Tamati - is in the middle of a short New Zealand tour, putting into practice her new-found stagecraft.
She's not long back from a 60-gig jaunt across the United Kingdom and Europe, playing at some of the continent's biggest festivals and supporting some of the world's biggest music stars.
But having supported Scott-Heron and Mos Def, Ladi6 now wants more and is hoping the success of second album The Liberation Of ... will help spread the word.
So, what's it like playing with a musical icon like Gil Scott-Heron?
"He's such an amazing character. Everybody's asking me what he's like, expecting him to be a total crack head or something, but he's just very approachable and humane," she says.
"He was so awesome and so open and generous with his time and I felt lucky being able to travel in convoy with him and his band, pulling up at service stations to eat.
"It seemed like a normal thing to do and all his band are these guys in their 60s who are just the coolest dudes ever. They have been around a bit and know their stuff but they are all so totally laid back. It seems life is comfortable wherever Gil is."
The constant performances of her eclectic blend of rock, pop, hip-hop and soulful grooves has made her even more confident and she's vowing to wow audiences with the new show: "I've always had a lot of confidence in myself and love the performing arts so I feel comfortable on stage, but over the last 18 months I've got even more [comfortable]," she says.
"I've always been comfortable on stage. It's where I go from a caterpillar to a butterfly. I love performing. We did quite a few of the European festivals and that was real eye-opener, but an amazing experience."
The metamorphosis is starting to turn heads across the globe and Ladi6 is already planning the next phase in her plan for world domination.
She said The Liberation Of ... was recorded in a bit of a rush in Berlin but what she learned there, and the album's success, has motivated her to go back to try to recapture the magic.
Berlin is, after all, where some of rock music's classic albums have been written and/or recorded, including Bowie's Low, Heroes and Lodger.
"We're back off to Berlin in mid-April to continue with what we started there last year. We've got a bit more recording planned but I don't know if we'll come back with a full album again," she says.
"When we went there last year I didn't realise some of the most important albums ever had been written or recorded there, but I just really liked the place.
"I loved the vibe and the character of the place.
"There's this clash between the decadent old and the modern there. You feel really free there and there's no judgment and they actually encourage you to be yourself and strive to be creative.
"They see right through you if you are false and while it can appear a bit weird, I found it really refreshing. And there's art everywhere so it's such an amazing place to be creative."
Ladi6 says what she records next in Berlin will take her career to a higher level.
"It's going to be a real step up. Now we have people behind us there and everything should be much easier and more fun and even more creative, and I'm going to take it at least one step further than the last one.
"I only had eight weeks for The Liberation Of ... there, so it will be nice to have some more time to get the results I want."

Tour dates
February 5: At Queenstown's Sunshine Shotover Festival with Shapeshifter, Fat Freddy's Drop, Hollie Smith, Opensouls and others.
February 19: Hawke's Bay Sacred Hill concert with Shapeshifter, Kora, The Black Seeds.
March 4: Whakatane Commercial Hotel.