A Wonderful World

His voice strikes a universal chord played on the strings of our soul. In song, it floats with a kind of grace reserved for angels.

His warm tenor makes us feel safe. It takes us to childhood. When he sang, he could ease a burden or soothe a heavy heart.

That is the legacy of singer and musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, gone now a decade but more popular than ever. In death, he has become the voice of Hawaiian music.

He did it with a series of coos and hums and a sweet song initially made famous in "The Wizard of Oz."

He did it with an 'ukulele, a humble instrument used mostly by children when Kamakawiwo'ole first held it against his giant chest and decided this was his sound.

Kamakawiwo'ole was as local as it gets in Hawai'i. This was a man defined by earthy pidgin and a gregarious, carefree spirit. He was country. He called you "cuz." You called him "bruddah."

He was a simple man, but one who achieved great things. In Kamakawiwo'ole, there was artistic genius in the face of physical pain, perseverance against the odds.

He neither graduated from high school nor learned to read music. He was on welfare when he found the creativity that produced a six-figure income.

He battled drug addiction, yet found the strength to quit cold turkey after a heart attack when he was 30.

And for much of his short adult life, he waged war with a freakish obesity. He weighed nearly 1,000 pounds — a man as large as a refrigerator — when he died June 26, 1997. He was 38.

Few Hawai'i musicians can rival his global popularity. Licensed use of his music, controlled by Mountain Apple Co. in Honolulu, is sought more often than that of any other Hawai'i artist.

Starting in 1998 with two feature films — "In God's Hands" and "Meet Joe Black" — Kamakawiwo'ole's music emerged as a vehicle to create mood and has been used in a dozen other films and at least that many TV commercials.

His music sold lottery tickets in Norway, paint in Australia, cereal in the United States, toys in Spain.

Yet even that success is tainted with sorrow. Kamakawiwo'ole didn't live long enough to realize the extent of his fame. His popularity found its zenith in the years following his death.

Every day at the three Hawaiian stations run by Cox Radio Hawai'i, listeners request Kamakawiwo'ole's music, says program director David "Davey D" Daniel's.

"With a strum of his ukulele he unites all these cultures around the world," he says. "His legacy is his music. In his music, you got the stories, the cultural message. You got the aloha. That all comes from his music."