World News – Evening Report

The ’90s movie soundtrack that still makes millennial hearts flutter

Evening Report — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 22:02:18 +0000

Backlit by an orange sky, Romeo appears. He smokes on a derelict outdoor stage; the only curtains here the blonde hair framing his face. The moody keyboard of Radiohead’s Talk Show Host swells, a 21-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio comes into focus, and a million teenage crushes are launched.

The year is 1996 and director Baz Luhrmann has reimagined William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for the MTV-era. Fair Verona is now a Venice Beach-style metropolis, the rivaling families tote guns rather than swords, and Romeo pops an ecstasy pill before going to the party where he falls for Juliet, played by a 17-year-old Claire Danes.

But it is the soundtrack – an eclectic mix of songs spanning Des’ree’s ballad ‘Kissing You’, The Cardigans’ sugary hit ‘Love Fool’ and Garbage’s sexy trip hop tune ‘#1 Crush’ – that captured both the film’s kaleidoscopic energy and shape-shifting 90s music landscape.

In Luhrmann’s brash adaptation, the Montague boys swap swords for guns and wear tropical shirts emblazoned with religious iconography.

Merrick Morton/20th Century Fox/Shutterstock via CNN Newsource

. A time when albums were a key part of the movie experience that continued on peoples’ CD players long after they’d left the cinema.

For teens during the decade, soundtrack albums were must-have merchandise, PARENTAL ADVISORY labels be damned. The same year as Romeo + Juliet, Trainspotting came out and Iggy Pop’s thumping ‘Lust for Life’ set the pace for another CD that was both achingly cool and a massive commercial success. This was the era of Dangerous Minds (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), and many more great albums that those of a certain age remember as clearly as the movies themselves.

A golden era

What was driving all these compilations? CDs were relatively cheap to make, with big profit margins (remember paying NZ$30 for a new release?), and record companies were selling a tonne of them. The 1990s marked the biggest boom in record industry history. “Record companies could afford to pay six and sometimes seven figure sums for the soundtrack rights for the film,” said Marius de Vries, co-music producer on Romeo + Juliet for which he and fellow music producers Craig Armstrong and Nellee Hooper won a BAFTA.

The Romeo + Juliet album itself peaked at No.2 on the Billboard 200 charts and went multi-platinum in several countries. Meanwhile, as de Vries points out, films in the 90s were “regularly spawning enormous hit singles”. Think Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ (The Bodyguard, 1992) or Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ (Titanic, 1997).

With big money came longer production times of sometimes a year or more, in high-end studios. For the pivotal moment Romeo meets Juliet, Armstrong used a 60-person-strong string orchestra, something he said would be unusual today. Likewise, de Vries had a classical choir in the studio for the film’s soulful renditions of Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ and Rozalla’s ‘Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)’ – both sung by baby-faced choir boy Quindon Tarver.

Luhrmann wanted commercial music to form the “spine” of the film, recalled acclaimed Grammy-winning composers Armstrong and de Vries, with these songs bleeding into the score. Radiohead’s specially-commissioned ‘Exit Music (for a Film)’. for instance, plays soon after the star-crossed lovers perish. Its ghostly lyrics begin: “wake from your sleep.” Luhrmann “uses Radiohead the same way that you’d use a piece of Mozart… he has no class barriers where music is concerned,” said Armstrong. “Whether it’s contemporary, classical, garage, electronic, he treats it all with the same reverence.”

Mercutio’s drag rendition of “Young Hearts Run Free” is one of the film’s iconic dance scenes, performed by Harold Perrineau.

Ronald Grant/20th Century Fox/Everett Collection via CNN Newsource

Representing youth culture

So how did certain songs make the cut? The curation was largely down to elusive multi-Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Hooper. Friend and musician Justin Warfield recalled Hooper’s epic house parties in London, where the producer regularly played dance tracks that ended up in Romeo + Juliet. Hooper was “testing the music as a DJ would in a nightclub”, said Warfield, “but trying it on an audience of friends before he put it in the final cut of the film”.

One night Hooper showed him a rough cut of the film’s gas station shootout scene between the Montague and Capulet boys, with the idea Warfield’s band at the time, One Inch Punch, would do the accompanying music. Warfield was electrified by what he was seeing: “I can’t believe the guns they’re using, the wardrobe, the language, the modernisation of Elizabethan in an almost street language.” Absolutely, he would do the music. But first, Hooper had a question: “Baz (Luhrmann) really wants to know if you can rap in Shakesperean.” Warfield duly researched the prose and rapped one of the scene’s tracks: ‘Pretty Piece of Flesh’.

Portals of discovery

Part of the magic of the 90s was the commissioning of new music just for soundtracks, said Yasi Salek, host of the podcast, Bandsplain. “You got these really special songs that would only ever exist on this one CD at that time. So you were, of course, going to run to the store and buy it”. The compilation CD was “like a portal that opened up worlds to you”, she added.

At the same time, great indie films were being made, and underground music was now the mainstream. As Salek notes, Nirvana’s Nevermind reached No.1 on the Billboard charts in 1992. And “this brief, intersection moment”, is “why, for me, soundtracks from these 90s movies are just top tier, gold standard”.

In the next decade, the rise of online streaming and death of CDs marked the end of the film soundtrack as we knew it. And while the current wave of 90s nostalgia is partly cyclical, it also taps into a longing for a “much more unified mass culture”, said Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s. In the fragmented internet age, “you don’t have that same feeling of unity, where everybody is listening to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ or ‘You Oughta Know’ at the exact same time”.

These days you’re more likely to see “songs that are included within a film or TV show that are a ‘moment’”, said Salek. She pointed to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ in the film Eddington (2025), or the way Emma Stone’s character in Bugonia (2025) sings along to Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’

De Vries meanwhile is encouraged to see “a lot of fresh, young, adventurous, experimental film composers coming up”, like Daniel Blumberg who last year won an Oscar for his “extraordinary” score for the The Brutalist. De Vries sees a bit of a sea change in “how much musical experimentation is being allowed into filmmaking again, and how much tolerance the right directors have for pushing the envelope”.

But without a doubt, the 90s were “a bunch of very golden years,” he said. “At the time, we were just having a lot of fun, and I think possibly that was reflected in the music we were making.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

New Zealander Everlee Wihongi detained by ICE in California after three-week trip home

Evening Report — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:17:28 +0000

Source: Radio New Zealand

Everlee Wihongi was detained by ICE officers without any explanation (file image) DANIELLE VILLASANA

Kiwi Everlee Wihongi has lived in the United States for more than 25 years and is now in an ICE detention centre in California, after a three week visit back to New Zealand.

She lives in Wisconsin, legally, where she’s been training to be a welder.

Everlee retuned to New Zealand for three weeks to celebrate a family milestone – an uncle’s 80th birthday.

She flew back to the States on April 10 but, instead of walking straight through immigration as she had numerous times before, she was detained by ICE officers without any explanation.

Everlee’s sister-in-law, Courtney Wihongi, says ICE officers told her that they needed to do a few checks and that she’d see family members on the otherside of the baggage carousel.

That didn’t happen.

“It’s been over a week, and we still don’t have an answer why”

Courtney says it’s been difficult to keep in touch with Everlee.

“Luckily she was travelling with some of our other family members so they saw her get walked away, but trying to find out where she was at the whole weekend, trying to get in contact with her was very difficult.”

“When everything was first happening, she was nervous, scared, all those feelings which are completely normal, just because there was so much that was unknown. Now that we’ve been able to talk to her, we have gotten some legal council and they’ve been able to give us a small little bit of a plan, so that is comforting.”

Courtney Wihongi says the family are now able to talk with her daily.

“Every single time she calls, it’s ten cents a minute she’s charged for the calls, we try to keep them short. Our biggest thing is trying to keep her positive and hopeful as of right now.”

After her initially detention at LA Airport, Everlee was taken an ICE processing centre in Adelanto, north east of Los Angeles.

“It’s very crowded. In the room that she sleeps in, there’s numerous other females sharing one room, any basic hygiene items that she needs she has to pay for.”

“She’s told us a some things here and there, but we try not to dwell on that, because again, we’re trying to keep her hopeful, but in a sense, prisoners are treated better in a prison.”

“You’ll always hear her laugh before you see her enter a room. She’s just a very fun person.”

Courtney Wihongi says her sister-in-law is a welder, but is also a professional make-up artist.

“She’ll go to work, do all her welding stuff with a full face of make-up, that’s just the person that she is.”

“As of right now, our game plan is, I’m talking with the lawyer we’ve got, there is a possibility that she can qualify for bail. One of the things he needs for that is to know what she was detained for. There is a specific form that he told us that ICE officers would be able to supply for her and she’s asked for that form twice now and has been told that she cannot get it.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

China lodges ‘serious protest’ over NZ Air Force’s conduct near its air space; NZDF denies disruption

Evening Report — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 08:07:14 +0000

Source: Radio New Zealand

China has urged New Zealand to abide by international law and basic norms governing international. RNZ / Richard Tindiller

China says it has lodged a serious complaint over the New Zealand Air Force’s alleged repeated harassment near its airspace, which the Defence Force denies.

Spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Guo Jiakun said that a P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the New Zealand Air Force recently conducted repeated close-in reconnaissance and harassment in the airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.

“The action undermined China’s security interests, increased risks of misunderstanding and miscalculation, and gravely disrupted the order of civil aviation in relevant airspace,” said Guo Jiakun.

“China has responded in a resolute manner and lodged serious protests with New Zealand.”

Guo Jiakun said China urged New Zealand to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, respect China’s sovereignty and security concerns and maintain the safety and order of civil aviation.

China’s Ministry of National Defence spokesperson, Zhang Xiaogang, said such malicious acts by New Zealand harmed China’s sovereignty and security, gravely disrupted the order of civil aviation in relevant airspace, and may easily trigger maritime and aerial incidents.

“We urge the New Zealand side to impose stricter discipline and supervision over its frontline forces, immediately stop irresponsible acts that harass and jeopardise civil aviation safety.”

A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defence Force said New Zealand’s P-8A maritime patrol aircraft has been undertaking activities that monitor North Korean sanctions evasions at sea in North Asia under UN Security Council resolutions.

The spokesperson said New Zealand has contributed to UN sanctions monitoring since 2018.

“These activities are not directed at China but rather aim to monitor evasions of United Nations sanctions on North Korea, which do occur in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.”

The spokesperson said the New Zealand Defence Force crew operated professionally and in accordance with international law and civil aviation procedures for the region.

“NZDF has reviewed the routes flown and all available information. We have no data which indicates they disrupted civil aviation.”

The Defence Force said New Zealand takes an open and transparent approach to these operations.

“As part of this, there has been dialogue between New Zealand and Chinese officials, and we have made it clear that this is a longstanding deployment enforcing UN-mandated sanctions on North Korea.”

The spokesperson said NZDF won’t be commenting further on the specifics of those discussions, or on the details of the operations.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

China lodges ‘serious protest’ over NZ Air Force’s conduct in its air space

Evening Report — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 04:46:48 +0000

Source: Radio New Zealand

China has urged New Zealand to abide by international law and basic norms governing international. RNZ / Richard Tindiller

China says it has lodged a serious complaint over the New Zealand Air-force’s repeated harassment near its airspace.