Bobby Holcomb

Bobby Holcomb (1947–1991) was an artist and musician who wrote popular Polynesian tunes.

Biography Bobby Holcomb was born in 1947 in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of an African-American father from Georgia, and a Hawaiian-Portuguese mother.

In the early 1970s, he travelled extensively through Asia, Europe and the Americas. In France, he performed with French pop groups such as Zig Zag Community and Johane of Arch, and he collaborated with French artists Sylvain Duplant, Jean-Pierre Auffredo and Éric Estève. He moved to Tahiti in 1976, and settled on the island of Huahine and learned the Tahitian language. He began composing songs in the Polynesian language, and combined traditional Polynesian melodies with reggae and popular rhythms. He became known to audiences simply as "Bobby". Most of his songs were written in Polynesian, but he also used French and English for some lyrics. His most popular song in Tahiti was "Orio", produced 1985.

In addition to music, he was also a painter and painted many murals and paintings. He used his art to promote Tahitian culture, and protested against French colonialism and nuclear testing on the islands. For his educational and cultural efforts, he was named French Polynesia's Personality of the Year in 1988.