kindyRock Creator Judi Cranston waves ‘Goodbye’ to her kids songwriting years with ‘Can You Wave Goodbye’
APRA award-winning children’s music creator Judi Cranston today releases her brand-new song and video Can You Wave Goodbye.
Made with NZ On Air Tamariki support, Can You Wave Goodbye is a catchy goodbye song for educators and families, incorporating body awareness, actions and plenty of fun, made with support from NZ On Air Tamariki. The song also marks Judi’s own wave goodbye to kindyRock songwriting, with her 158th song, as she steps into a new chapter of soul led creative music for all ages after years of building her kindyRock collection.
Perfect for families at home, and for educators everywhere, this will be a must for mat time and gentle goodbyes at kindy drop off. The song is matched with a whimsical animated video, created by Auckland’s Ardi Alemi, to augment the song’s purpose - encouraging participation and fine motor skill development with simple and repetitive actions.
Judi is the founder of kindyRock, with a mission to help early childhood educators be more confident and creative with running their music sessions. Her fun and memorable musical resources help little kids learn through music, and they also help big people use music in ways that improve learning. In 2024, Judi won APRA Best Children’s Song (Preschool) along with her co-writer Levity Beet.
For more than 18 years her music has been played by generations of kids and their parents, grannies and music groups alike. Judi is blown away to see how widely her music has travelled in this time; having started on CDs in 2008, the catalogue now has over 65 million streams on Spotify, and 12.5 million YouTube views. Along the way, support from NZ music industry bodies like NZ on Air Tamariki has recognised the importance of creating for a younger audience, backing the production and promotion for this song and video, and a number of other kindyRock singles since 2018.
Judi says, ‘My slant has always been to educate the educators, so they are empowered with new ideas to run their music classes in a fun and helpful way’. To this end, Judi also launched a kindyRock app with support from Creative New Zealand in 2020, responding to the need to make music sessions during the covid lockdowns more accessible to everyone at home. Additionally, with support from NZ Music Commission, her Rock Your Music training programme was created for teachers to develop their creativity, confidence and expertise in delivering music to kids themselves.
‘I created a goal in 2009 - that my music would be accessible to any child in the world. I wrote it on a little piece of paper and stuffed it in my drawer. Then I found it 15 years later when I changed my bedroom around and realised it had already happened. Since I began, the music industry here has exploded with amazing content for kids, beautiful networking through the Kiwi Kids Music community, and the growth in industry support for the genre. I am so glad to see so many people inspired to follow this path too’
Judi's music is a favourite at library rhymetimes and mainly music classes, and generations of kids have grown up knowing songs like Wibble Wobble and Sit on the Mat and Clap, among many more.
Her top song on Spotify, Wibble Wobble, has over 9,500,000 streams!
The kindyRock catalogue will always remain accessible on streaming platforms in support of early childhood communities. Can You Wave Goodbye will help children practise calm, confident farewells through a catchy blend of repetition, rhythm and melody. This song continues Judi’s legacy of creating music that is not only joyful, but truly useful for the audience.