Céline Dion and ‘Siren Battles’

Porirua —a small town in New Zealand— is in the news after a petition by some of its residents put the spotlight on its ‘siren battles’ — between music enthusiasts who load their cars with industrial speakers and compete to have the loudest and clearest sounds.  Notably, music by Céline Dion appears to be a favourite among the participants.  To quote from a BBC report:

The battles involve groups of people gathering in an area with their cars, blasting music from sirens more typically used for emergency warnings.

The idea is to play music from the sirens the loudest - and the clearest.

French-Canadian diva Dion has become the artist of choice not only because of her popular emotional ballads, but because much of her music - including Oscar-winning My Heart Will Go On, from 1997 film Titanic - has high treble, NZ website The SpinOff reports.

“Celine Dion is popular because it's such a clear song - so we try to use music that has high treble, is clear and not much bass,” Paul Lesoa, one of founders of a group that runs siren battles in Auckland, told the site.

The cars can have anywhere between seven to 10 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.

Mr Lesoa told The SpinOff he felt the stigma around the battles was unfair.

“We just love music, we love dancing, and doing this is better than night clubbing or drinking in a bar in the city, where there’s fights etc,” he said.

He said he had applied to Auckland Council for a permit but was yet to hear back.

“Basically everyone has a hobby and while our hobby can be quite disturbing and we understand how disturbing it can be, we just want our own proper, safe space away from people to do it.”