His booming voice has a special ring to it. Yes, he may be a Barry White and Nat King Cole fan, but Tevita Bautarua is a special voice on his own.
He is a well known musician in Nadi for his lively beat and wonderful vocal accompaniment for the 'Toso Mai Nadi' album cover he did in 2003. Other tunes like his song of his island home, Taveuni, also received good airtime for this Lovonivonu villager.
I met Tevita when I went on a one-day Captain Cook cruise with a film crew from the UK.
Music is still very much part of Tevita's life. He is the entertainment officer with the Captain Cook Cruises.
But while he is not moonlighting as an entertainment officer, Tevita is seriously pursuing his music, cutting albums and singles.
The latest being his 10 song CD which he has just recently released titled Ratu Navula, as a tribute to the famous Nadi-based high school which was recorded by itaukei sequence music producer extraordinaire, Manu Railoa at his Nadi studio.
Tevita's album also features a song about Fiji man, and Wallaby number eight, Radike Samo, who he met last year just before the album was released.
"About 40 per cent of the income from the album has been given to Ratu Navula to help them build their rugby gym," Tevita said.
The man is more philosophical nowadays, especially after proving to the rest of the world that nothing can stop someone from living his life.
Tevita dropped out of school while still in primary school. He has known nothing else but singing.
"Education is not the only thing today. I want to say to people "don't lose hope" if they don't get that far. I have been in this industry for so many years and it has fed my family," he said.
After the recent Nadi flood, Tevita knows he has to start again from scratch as he lost about $15,000 worth of home furnishings that were damaged by the flood.
"A friend of mine bought all these for me and now I have to replace all of them because I lost nearly everything," he said.
Apart from his musings about life, Tevita is a strong supporter of local music, regardless of his status as a musician himself.
"I know Fijian music can make it big on the international scene and our musicians can also go overseas, if the likes of Nat King Cole and Barry White can do it, why can't we?"
Bautarua traces his music roots back to Nausori where he first started off. Before that, like music talents the world over, he was part of the church choir. But he likes soul music best, something that he says he gets his inspirations from. Barry White is one of his favourites.
"I like soul music. Soul music is straight from the heart and it's not only because I like Barry White, but it's you talking from your heart," Tevita says.
On the whole, Tevita is all about how Fiji is friendly smile, a loud booming voice and of course the skill to entertain people, even while enjoying a conversation.