Moʻorea (Tahitian pronunciation: \ˌmō-ō-ˈrā-ä, ˈmō-ō-ˌrā-\) is a high island in French Polynesia, part of the Society Islands, 17 km (roughly 9 mi) northwest of Tahiti. Its position is 17°32′S 149°50′W / 17.533°S 149.833°W / -17.533; -149.833. Moʻorea means "yellow lizard" in Tahitian. An older name for the island is ʻAimeho, sometimes spelled 'Aimeo or ʻEimeo (among other spellings misunderstood by early visitors with no knowledge of the language). Early Western colonists and voyagers also referred to Moʻorea as York Island.

Several ferries go to the Vai'are wharf in Mo'orea daily from Papeetē, the Tahitian capital. The Vai'are wharf is in the Vai'are bay. There are 3 ferries. One of them is the 'Aremiti 5. The largest one is the 'Aremiti Ferry and the other one is the Moorea ferry. The ferries have to pass through Mo'orea's coral pass, then toward Papeetē across the ocean and into the Tahiti Lagoon. The Vai'are bay is in the east part of Mo'orea. Mo'orea's Temaʻe Airport (MOZ) has connections to the international airport in Papeetē and onward to other Society Islands such as Bora Bora. If the islanders want to make an international flight, they would take Air Tahiti to get to the Fa'a'a International Airport on Tahiti. The Mo'orea airport is located north of the Vai'are bay. There is one road that goes around the island. Along the road are kilometer markers from 1 to 35. The first one is near the airport. The 35th one is in Ha'apiti. There are also white signs that tell the driver which commune they entered. Other signs have the communes name with a red slash through it, meaning that the driver is leaving the commune.

The Gipsy Kings are a group of musicians from Arles and Montpellier, who perform in Spanish with an Andalucían accent. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Spanish Romani people who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. Chico Bouchikhi is of Moroccan and Algerian descent. They are known for bringing rumba catalana, a pop-oriented music distantly derived from traditional flamenco music, to worldwide audiences. The group originally called itself Los Reyes.

Their music has a particular rumba flamenca style, with pop influences; many songs of the Gipsy Kings fit social dances, such as salsa and rumba. Their music has been described as a place where "Spanish flamenco and Romani rhapsody meet salsa funk".

The Gipsy Kings are from France and are largely responsible for bringing the sounds of progressive pop-oriented flamenco to the world. The band started out in Arles, a town in southern France, during the 1970s, when brothers Nicolas and Andre Reyes, the sons of renowned flamenco artist Jose Reyes, teamed up with their cousins Jacques, Maurice, and Tonino Baliardo, who played with Manitas de Plata. Manitas de Plata and Jose Reyes were a 2-man group that started the entire revelation of Gypsy Rumba, but mostly Jose, who was a famous singer, when he departed Manitas and started a band of his own made up of his children which he called "Los Reyes". Los Reyes would later become "Gipsy Kings".