Some loved it but Tom Hunt reports that Suzanne Paul's foray into dance music was not adored by all...
To the haters, the opening words of the Blue Monkey music video were prophetic.
"Ohh, ohh, ah, dear me. Oh my God, ohh dear me."
The voice was unmistakably that of Suzanne Paul, she of the Natural Glow and its thousands of luminous spheres.
It was 20 years ago - the summer of 1994-1995. Kurt Cobain had just died. Britpop was riding high. In New Zealand it was another Brit making a play for our musical tastes.
The next line of the video was - some would say - less prophetic. "Wow, this is it - this is meant to be really good . . ."
To the doubters and haters, it was quite simply not good.
Website Charts.org.nz has just one comment about Blue Monkey: "This is just a really, really crap song."
One pundit would rank it as one of New Zealand's 10 worst songs ever, up there with True Bliss's Forever and Paul Holmes' Wichita Lineman.
But speaking this week, Paul remained ecstatic about the song.
If it came out now it could have gone viral, in the vein of K-pop hit Gangnam Style, she said.
As it happened, Blue Monkey was championed by the gay community - and, incidentally, filmed at gay nightclub Staircase on K Road, Auckland.
Some television hosts also championed it, one even predicting it would reach No 1 in the charts.
According to Paul, it didn't quite reach number one but did make the top 20. All Blacks danced to it on television. She remembers going to buy a television and in the showroom, she was on every screen.
The story of Paul's rise and fall and rise in New Zealand began in the early 1990s when she arrived from Wolverhampton, England with just $18 in her pocket.
She would soon be a millionaire thanks to bronzing powder Natural Glow, sold on late-night infomercials.
It could be used as an eye shadow, nail polish, blusher and fake tan.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Paul was for a while the most adored person in New Zealand.
Lines from the ads - "Sharon's only wearing it on one leg today" and "thousands of luminous spheres" - were repeated everywhere.
New Zealanders glowed orange and Paul's bank balance grew.
It was the early 1990s and Paul had a friend visiting from England. "There weren't very many nightclubs in Auckland from what we were used to . . . the people didn't get up and dance."
They figured a comedy song would get clubbers flocking to the dance floor.
Blue Monkey was born over a bottle of port and named after a British nightclub they used to visit.
A philosophy Paul would carry through life - "take the first step and the next steps will be obvious" - played a part.
Paddy Free, who would go on to fame with Mike Hodgson in electronic music duo Pitch Black, was enlisted to do the music.
Boh Runga provided soulful contributing vocals to Paul's - in her own words - "strangled cat" singing.
Mark Tierney of Kiwi band Strawpeople directed the video. The idea to sample in Paul's infomercial segments was his, Paul said. "It's really lovely", "once we start we won't want to stop", "I'm going to put my hands up there" and, yes, "thousands of luminous spheres" worked surprisingly well to a four-on-the-floor pop-house beat.
Her dance class came up with the moves.
Magic - which some would call misery - happened with lines including "while you're sitting you could be knitting" and "get down, get funky, everybody do the Blue Monkey".
She was riding high. With her business partner they sold their business in 1996 for $39 million. Two years later, her personal fortune was estimated to hover around $10m.
She was officially a celebrity, appearing on television's Celebrity Treasure Island and How's Life?
But in 2004, her Midas touch failed with a new "Maori cabaret venture" on Auckland's North Shore.
There were promises of kapa haka meeting cabaret. There would be a hangi buffet. The gift shop sold "Maorioke" CDs.
Three months after it opened, Rawaka abruptly closed, leaving creditors more than $1m out of pocket.
Paul was down but far from out.
By 2006, despite bankruptcy, she repaid creditors 25 cents to the dollar, with promises of more to come.
Then, in 2007, there she was on our television screens again, winning Dancing with the Stars as if she had never been away.
She has since been on stage, tried stand-up comedy and launched a clothing range, but music videos are history. "I think I've done my dash there."
