Natalie Ai Kamauu performs with her family at The Shops at Wailea.

Returning to The Shops at Wailea for a free show Oct. 25, Natalie Ai Kamauu routinely wins Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards as the best female vocalist of the year. In 2023, she triumphed not only winning the category for the sixth time, but also Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Hawaiian single, plus “No Waimea Ke Aloha” earned wins for engineering and graphics.

“It was so not expected,” says Kamauu. “Usually, I just won female vocalist and maybe a single. That’s all I thought was possible.”

When the award winners were announced, she was living in Japan with her husband, Iolani Kamauu, while their house was built in Waimea.

“Rents were so high, we moved to Japan where rent and the cost of living was cheaper,” she explains. “I sent my daughter and our daughter-in-law to the Hōkūs to represent us. We were in concert at the time as they were announcing the awards. It was a very overwhelming and crazy night. When it was over, we were on a train going back to our home and just looking at each other. What just happened?”

Asked why she thinks “No Waimea Ke Aloha” so impressed her peers, she suggests, “I honestly believe that at that time, home and family is what stood out to everyone. Our song of the year, our single and video is about a home that was being built. We vote for songs that are about love most of the time, but this was about family, and because we stand as a family, I’m guessing that’s what it was.”

Kamauu last performed on Maui around a year ago at The Shops. On Oct. 25 she will appear with her family.

“We’re so happy that we can come back,” she says. “We are coming as an entire family, myself, my husband, my son is our bass player, our daughter as our dancer, as well as and our daughter-in-law, our son’s wife, will be joining us. We’re coming as a family and that’s what we love to sing and dance about. It’s love for family, love for home, love for ‘aina, love for Hawaii.”

Blessed with a beautiful voice, this multi-Hōkū winner and Grammy-nominated artist has extolled her love for the islands for many years, since her time as a young hula dancer with her parents, Howard and Olana Ai, who formed Hālau Hula Olana in 1975.

“My parents are kumu hula, so that’s a given I’m going to be a hula dancer,” she says. “Then when I was 15 years old, on a Monday night my dad gave me an ukulele, and said, ‘we have a show.’ I was extremely confused. He began to show me some chords, and I wasn’t convinced, he’s joking with me, right? And it’s not like the show was for auntie’s backyard party luau; it was for the Democratic Party of Hawaii at the Hawaii Country Club.

“There I was playing the ukulele for all of five days. I was so terrible. My dad told the sound man, ‘you can put the mic there, but don’t turn it on and can put the vocal mic by her as well, but don’t turn it on.’ I was literally a fixture standing next to my dad on the stage.

“I thought that if I didn’t practice and continued not getting any better, they would let me go back into the dance line. It took me about three years before I realized this is not going to go back to how it was, and it took me two more years to realize I think I’m okay at this. I still want to be a dancer, but I think I can do both. So I like to say that when you watch me dance, you’ll hear me sing. Or when you watch me sing, you’ll hear me dance. Because hula and music and singing is one inside of me. I’m doing both at the same time.”

A former Merrie Monarch Hula Festival Miss Aloha Hula, when she began releasing her Hōkū winning albums, Kamauu adopted an unusual approach to their titles, simply using one letter. First came “‘Ē” followed by “‘Ī,” then “‘Ā,” and by 2013, she released the anthology “Eia.”

“For my first one, it’s the letter ‘Ē,” she recalls. “I looked up a word that meant weird, strange, because it was so strange for me. I had been only a halau musician. It was even weird as I started to sing without dancers in front of me. I felt naked. I felt so bare. It was such a weird experience for me.”

For her second album, with a title that means supreme or best, “with the letter ʻĪ, everyone after my first win, kept telling me things like, ‘I really like this, but I don’t like that,'” she says. “‘You should do more of this and less of that.’ At no time do I think I’m the greatest. However, that was the best that I could possibly do with all of those voices in my ear.”

By the time of releasing her third album, “with ʻĀ, I thought, ‘I feel like I’m being carved away, and there’s something more inside of me that needs to be found.’ ʻĀ means to sparkle, so I thought about the pressure that a diamond has to go through in order to be able to sparkle. Then I did an anthology album, and ‘eia’ means here. All of those three albums brought me to that point.”

As far as her approach to Hawaiian music, Kamauu says, “I like to experiment with music that has been created, and I love traditional music with all of my heart. I like to tickle boundaries, not necessarily step out of them, but just tickle the edges. I believe that music is alive and is meant to grow. And I hope people will come and enjoy what we have to share. We can touch each other physically, emotionally and spiritually with music.”

Natalie Ai Kamauu and family will perform from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at The Shops at Wailea. Admission is free. Seating will be provided.