Pauly's widow chasing Audi over ad

Kirstine Fuemana with her children Imogen, Santos and Salvador. Photo / Doug Sherring

The widow of How Bizarre singer Pauly Fuemana will pursue German car giant Audi over what she believes is unauthorised use of his work in a television ad.

Kirstine Fuemana has several legacy projects planned, including a TV movie. The OMC frontman died aged 40 in 2010, months before the birth of their sixth child.

Fuemana, 45, and copyright-holder Universal Music NZ, launched legal action against Audi over the 1996 song Land of Plenty last year, saying there were "noticeable similarities" with a "Land of Plenty. Land of Quattro" commercial.

Audi admitted it had considered using Pauly's songs, but denied copying one.

Fuemana said yesterday the first legal claim had petered out, but she has a new lawyer and will file a personal damages claim, including a request for compensation of an amount yet to be decided.

"Just because Paul's passed away doesn't mean that you can just go and use whatever you like."

Universal Music NZ managing director Adam Holt would not comment yesterday. Land of Plenty co-writer Alan Jansson said Audi was "disrespectful", but he would not take legal action.

Audi NZ spokeswoman Fiona Woolley said the company had taken advice from lawyers and independent musicologists and believed the issue was resolved last year. A new Land of Quattro ad was running, but last year's commercial was still available online.

Despite his success, Pauly Fuemana was declared bankrupt in 2006, but his widow said her claim was not about money. Finances were "tight" but they got by, she said.

She had a responsibility to Pauly and their children, aged between 4 and 16, to take action.

Fuemana said she had been meeting a producer planning a movie about Pauly's life. The movie - with the working title of Never Coming Back, the title of another of his songs - remained in the early stages with a script being developed, but no casting yet.

She wanted the movie completed in a year, and said an album of Pauly's unreleased tracks being put together by musician Tiki Taane would be released at the same time.

A documentary on Pauly, titled How Bizarre, after OMC's breakout 1995 multi-platinum album of the same name, will screen on Maori TV next month. The How Bizarre album will be re-released too, which Fuemana believed included an acoustic version of the song that made Pauly famous.

"It was just him on the guitar. It was quite beautiful."