An endless playlist of Celine Dion songs is being blasted out by drivers in a New Zealand city to torture residents through the night as rival gangs compete in “siren battles.”
The sleepless residents of Porirua, north of national capital Wellington and home to 60,000 people, say the Canadian’s songs lose their lustre when played loud and non-stop through the night as vehicles and bicycles circle the area blaring out the music.
“It’s a headache,” Porirua Mayor Anita Baker told AFP on Thursday.
Siren battles have erupted in parts of New Zealand for at least seven years. The idea is for rival gangs to play music from the sirens the loudest – and the clearest.
An view from Tinakori Hill shows the central business district of Wellington, New Zealand , the national capital. (Mark Coote/Bloomberg via Getty)
The cars and bicycles can have anywhere between seven to ten sirens, with competitions usually held throughout the night. They take weeks to prepare for, as participants source sirens online and solder speakers and amplifiers to frames that sit on cars.
Local media have reported on contestants — often people with family links to Pacific Island nations — using large siren-type speakers on cars and even bicycles to drown each other out with their powerful systems, the AFP report sets out.
Dion, who has five Grammy Awards and two Academy Awards, is the best-selling female artist of all time with hits like “I’m Alive” and “My Heart Will Go On.”
“They love Celine Dion,” the mayor confessed, adding “They like anyone with a high pitch and great tone in their voice.”
New Zealand Siren beat producer Mizgf.C, standing with his modified bicycle, used in siren battles. (Joe Hockley (josephgbakrew)/Wikipedia)
In Porirua, people have had enough of hearing the power ballads.
The contests start as early as 7 pm and can go on until as late as 2 am, the mayor told the outlet.
“It’s really loud music. They only play a quarter of the song, so it’s like having a turntable and it comes screeching out.”
Competing cars park with their engines running, blasting out music before moving to avoid police, Baker said.
Nearly 300 disgruntled residents have so far signed a petition on the website change.org demanding Porirua City Council put a stop to it.
“I’m sick of the disturbing of the peace that sometimes goes on for hours,” wrote Diana Paris, on the petition’s Change.org account.
Celine Dion arrives for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019, in New York. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty)
“Although I enjoy listening to Céline Dion in the comfort of my lounge and at my volume, I do not enjoy listening to fragments of it stopping and starting anytime between 7pm and 2am.”
Mayor Anita Baker told Radio New Zealand (RNZ) she was “sick to death” of the battles and wanted participants to return to areas where not everyone would have to listen to them.
“We haven’t got anywhere in our city where there’s not houses that would hear anything.”
RNZ recently revealed police had received up to 40 reports of incidents between early February and early October this year.