EDWIN MAHI’AI (“MAHI”) COPP BEAMER BORN– NATIVE HAWAIIAN TENOR FALSETTO
Born in Honolulu and grandson of famed composer & hula teacher Helen Desha Beamer, he attended Kamehameha School, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Julliard School of Music before serving briefly in the U.S. Army. Again a civilian, Mahi, a noted falsetto singer, composer, and hula dancer, toured the mainland with his cousins, Winona and Keola. He recorded his first album, The Remarkable Voice of Hawaii’s Mahi Beamer in Authentic Hawaiian Songs, for Capitol Records in 1959. That same year, Mahi had an uncredited part as a singer in the movie Forbidden Island. Beamer performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and for 13 years performed with Nalani Kele’s Polynesian Review at the Stardust Resort & Casino, Paradise, Nevada. In 1991, Mahi received the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts’ Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He died July 14, 2017, in Honolulu.
Source: John Berger, “Hawaiian entertainer Mahi Beamer dies,” Star Advertiser, 7/14/2017. Retrieved 9/6/2020, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/07/14/breaking-news/hawaiian-entertainer-mahi-beamer-dies/ Photo: VideoFrog, 1/4/2004. Diamond Head. Permissive Use.
Indigenous America Calendar 