His debut EP, That’s Camp, received a great reception upon its release, with his latest EP I’M THAT BITCH debuting at #4 on the Official Aotearoa Album Charts, sitting alongside artists such as Lorde and Six60.

Adding to this momentum, Ardon was recently the recipient of NZ On Air’s prestigious Waiata Takitahi grant, providing funding to translate his track EGO into Te Reo Māori. Released on Matariki, WHAI MAI RĀ marks an important step in his mission to elevate Māori language and identity within the electronic and dance scene.

Growing up in Wanganui, Ardon felt like the only queer person, without any queer role models or people to look up to. “I really sheltered myself, I think, from being myself. I think anyone that’s kind of oppressed you know, in some sort of way, at some point that comes out, and it might be a positive, or it could kind of be a negative. For me, I was lucky to use that as my fuel and my fire, to push me to be a more confident person, and kind of be more myself…. We all come from different places and spaces, and we all have our own insecurities. I still do, you know, I’m a very confident person but I still question myself sometimes. I just don’t let those voices, that loudness there kind of control me like it used to.”

Ardon spent many years training as a dancer in his youth, a talent which he channels into his performances and which he credits much of his confidence and discipline to. “I was a dancer from the age of 10 to 15, and I was in the New Zealand Salsa team. We trained 3 times a week, we travelled America, Australia, New Zealand, and so I was really drilled from a young age in what discipline was. If you are to represent your country in any capacity, whether that’s boxing, dance, music, that comes with discipline and hard work. No matter what I do, those kind of values and those things I learned from that young age still relate to anything that I do in my life.”

Throughout his journey, Ardon has experienced many different chapters to his life, including as a boxer, choreographer, reality television personality, fitness coach, and now recording artist, something he views as distinctive chapters on his path. “I’m kind of one of those people that just goes with the flow, when things come into my life. I decided when I was younger in my early 20s to move up to Auckland, and I didn’t want to work for anyone, therefore the things that I was passionate about I just kind of allow to let come into my life, and if they led to opportunities, I’d kind of take those opportunities. I’m not a forever person, and a lot of those things have some into my life at those times and really added value, and able to grow me as a person, and grow my skillset across so many different things. Everything kind of has a bit of an end time, but I think for me with music, that’s a forever thing.”

While some people reinvent themselves out of necessity, it’s something which Ardon has chosen for himself. “They’re just things that happened. I had that boxing fight, and that kind of changed my life, really made me step outside my comfort zone. And then I see an opportunity there, at those kind of gyms and places around New Zealand, there was this real stigma around toxic masculinity and queer people feeling uncomfortable in those spaces. So you know, my brain is like ‘here’s an opportunity for me to kind of help in that space’. I ran Pride Box and got more people into those spaces, taught gyms about toxic masculinity, what that looks like, and how you can ake your place a bit more open to inviting queer people in. And when that chapter was finished, it was like ‘okay, I’ve done what I needed to do here’, and then moved on to the next thing.”

The underlying theme to every chapter of Ardon’s journey has been his dedication and drive. “Everything is hard work, but I’m one of those people that believe I can do anything. It’s actually more of a mindset. I think when you learn to unlock that mindset, and truly believe you can do anything, then that kind of discipline and stuff that comes with it becuase it’s just a part of wanting to achieve whatever goal that might be. It’s all hard work, everything I’ve done, you know, hasn’t been easy, but has also been the most rewarding as well. Not just for myself, but for other people along my journey. I’m always about ‘how will this impact other people and how can this help other people’.”

While he may not have had any role models in this space growing up, Ardon doesn’t want to be seen as a role model himself. “One thing I don’t want to be called is a role model. That’s not what I’m seeking to be, that’s not my why. But if someone, a younger person, sees what I’m doing and that gives them the okay to be themselves, then that’s what I’m doing. But first and foremost, it’s for me. If that translates to other people, and you know, a big part of my why is coming back to me being a child is not having any queer role models or any queer people in New Zealand to look up to, and so if I was younger and seeing an artist like myself out there, it could have given me more permission from a younger age to know that it was okay, to be myself and express myself in kind of any way you want.”

Granting himself permission was something that happened over time, but moving to Auckland from Wanganui, being around more diverse types of people, was a real catalyst for self expression. “I remember going on my first red carpet before I was anyone, and wearing heels. Actually, it was to the music awards! And wearing heels and just feeling this kind of empowerment, like wow, I’m stepping out and doing something different and pushing myself past my own comfort zone, but also in a way that feels really empowering and special to who I am. That started this journey of me really being able to embrace both my masculine and feminine sides, because I believe that they coexist together. Some people just feel oppressed to not be able to, you know, express more of their femininity, and that’s something that now I’m just not so afraid of. If anything, it’s part of my superpower.”

Being a dancer, there is a huge emphasis on the live performances for Ardon, which is a big contrast to the calm, controlled spaces of a studio environment. “You have to step into this performative space, and it demands a lot more energy, a lot more attention. I have a lot of choreography going on. It’s really about bringing the audience for the ride with you. There’s a difference between standing up on stage performing a song, and actually being a performer. I’m not the best vocalist, I do all my songs live and obviously my voice sits in a different space. It’s very low and husky, and you know, and yeah, for me it’s about bringing the audience on this journey with me, so prepping yourself for stages is definitely different. In the studio, I think I’m definitely more focused, in terms of I’m there for a reason, I know that I want to work on music. I’m listening to sounds and we’re building structure. It’s definitely different. But that’s the thing that I just love so much about music is that one song has so many creative elements.”

Ardon’s latest single, WHAI MAI RĀ, has been more of a reconnection with his Māori culture than a simple translation, and has quickly come to mean more than being just another song. Following a phone call from Bigpop (Records) advising him to check his emails, Ardon learned that he’d received the NZ On Air funding and “I just burst into tears. It was such a spiritual experience for me, becuase right at that moment, I could feel my Tūpuna standing right beside me. This was the first funding I’ve been given towards my music, and to be given it to be able to translate my songs was just this surreal moment. It was really an invitation for me to really connect back with who I am, and my culture. Working through the process with Hēmi Kelly in the translation space, someone that I’ve known since I was 17 years old. It was just a really beautiful experience. Translating the song, like writing it in English it kind of had its own essence, but then kind of taking that essence and obviously you can’t translate word for word. So the song is still the same, but in the same essence, it kind of takes on this new kind of meaning in this different way. For me, it was just a really beautiful way to reconnect with who I am.”

As with many things, it’s impossible to translate something word for word. With this track, Ardon feels that “it’s more of a spiritual thing rather tahn a translation thing. It’s more of a feeling, you write something in English, but when it comes to writing something in Māori, there’s spirit with it. There’s more depth, and I think that kind of brings a real specialness to it. It kind of, for me, has taken a song I wrote about this ego and this confidence about stepping on stage, and then it kind of translated into the same thing, but this essence of really being yourself. Part of that for me is being Māori, and growing up feeling really disconnected from that part of my life. My Reo journey has been a pretty big journey, and it’s going to always be a journey. It was just really nice to be able to reconnect and be able to stand up and be proud, and be like, you know, I am a Māori queer artist, and then have the songs to back this up and be able to share my songs at gigs and things like that. It just adds this whole really special element.”

Through working on WHAI MAI RĀ, Ardon has realised that in the process of reconnecting, he has realised that “naturally and organically, I operate in the Te Reo Māori way. There’s a way that us indigenous people approach wellbeing or approach collaborative processes, that aren’t necessarily found all the time in creative spaces.” Ardon and his team start each performance with a karakia, setting the space and reconnecting before they take the stage for a performance. The release, timed to coincide with Matariki, was far from coincidental. “Because those tracks were in Te Reo Māori, and it felt like that’s how I wanted to celebrate Matariki this year – release the songs at that time and kind of bring everyone together to celebrate it. It just all kind of fell into place, and the timing of everything was just perfect.”

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for Ardon, as the second half of 2026 stacks up with performances scheduled at the Rainbow Games, Pride (Wanaka/Queenstown), and around Halloween, culminating with plans for a tour currently in the works for November. WHAI MAI RĀ is out now across streaming platforms, and you can check out the video below.