Tia Carrere has made a career of being a chameleon. She played a Vietnamese girl on an episode of "The A-Team." She played hapa Asian/black in the movie "Rising Sun." In "Wayne's World," her character Cassandra Wong is described as "Chinese-American." In "Showdown in Little Tokyo" she played Minako Okeya.

And now she's playing Hawaiian.

Not that she hasn't played Hawaiian characters before — as the voice of Lilo's sister Nani in that Disney movie, as well as a number of other forgettable projects.

But to win a Grammy for Hawaiian music? That's more than shape-shifting or play-acting. That's identity theft.

It doesn't matter that she's not Native Hawaiian. (She has identified her racial background as Filipino, Chinese, Spanish.) You don't have to have the blood to be a great Hawaiian musician. But you do have to have the heart — and "heart" defined as not how much you like Hawaiian music, but how much you've lived it.

Ah well, we've just about given up on the Hawaiian music Grammy anyway, right? They just don't get it.

But still ... but still ...

There is duty to all of this. An apprenticeship. A paying-of-dues and proving yourself. Carrere has a sweet-enough singing voice, but she can't blow the doors off the hale or make the tutu weep like Amy Gilliom. Her album is mostly music you'd hear in the background during a spa massage.

She may have Hollywood movie credentials and posing for Playboy credentials and "Dancing with the Stars" career-reboot credentials, but she doesn't have the credentials of all the for-real Hawaiian musicians who have played the free gigs in the hot sun at the Maui County Fair or in the chilly rain at the Hawi Country Carnival, sore throat and all, who did every hana hou the audience asked for. She doesn't have the credibility of the Hawaiian musicians who actually speak the language they are singing, who studied years to get it right, who have spent holidays singing with the kupuna at Lunalilo Home and have done countless wedding gigs and baby lu'au for people who paid them with gratitude and dinner.

Carrere said it herself in her Grammy acceptance speech:

"I am not worthy. I am truly not worthy of the people in this room that have done so much."

It'll be interesting to see what she morphs into next. She hasn't stayed in one role for long, and what more can the role of "Hawaiian Musician" give her besides a Grammy? Will she release a mainstream album? Rap? Maybe next she can pass for Latin Grammy.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.