New Zealand Maori Culture Group 'J Geeks' Are Bringing Metro Back!

The story of J Geeks is one most of us are now familiar with – the cheeky and talented Maori entertainment group on New Zealand’s Got Talent who, despite being the overwhelming crowd favourite and wowing the likes of John Key and Eva Longoria, didn’t make it through to top three.

What most of us don’t know is that J Geeks already had a name for themselves on the online world of social media, with a legion of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube fans that were hooked on their zany, stylistic approach to being a modern New Zealand Maori entertainer.

Appearing on NZGT has helped skyrocket J Geeks’ popularity; the group now has over 5 million views on YouTube, over 1000 followers on Twitter and their Facebook page has nearly 62,000 likes and a reach of over 300,000 people.

Jermaine Leef, founder of J Geeks, says that despite the group not winning, NZGT was great for increasing their public profile. 

“It gave us a chance to show New Zealand the modern Maori man: metro, ripped, funny, crazy, and artistic.”

Even though they are disappointed at not winning NZGT, Jermaine says the group are optimistic about the future and are already planning and looking forward to their summer New Zealand tour. J Geeks have enlisted the help of MediaPA, a Hamilton-based social media marketing and public relations company, to promote their upcoming tour; which involves 40 shows, spread across New Zealand.

The ultimate dream, says Jermaine, is for J Geeks to create an interaction and association between themselves and pop culture. They are focused on creating a live entertainment show unlike anything else in the world; fusing modern technology with pop culture and old Maori tikanga, in a way that celebrates New Zealand and the evolving international arts scene.

“We want to branch out everywhere,” he says, “Australia, Europe; we want to participate in all those festivals. We want to bring the metro-Maori electro craze from Aotearoa to all dimensional corners of the universe.”

And it sounds as though they want to bring their fans along too:

“We love all our fans and we want to put all of them on our waka and take them with us on our journey.”