She directly and indirectly influenced many later Hawaiian musicians including Lena Machado and her adoptive grandson Kahauanu Lake.

[1] Her parents were Keokilele Halemanu Punana Ukeke (died 1913), a Native Hawaiian from Wainiha, and John Malina Sr, an early Filipino settler in Hawaii.

Her father worked as a paniolo (cowboy) at Kipu Ranch, owned by William Hyde Rice, and received his surname from the Hawaiian pronunciation of Manila.

When she sang there with the Band, the Oregon Daily Journal noted, "Her voice is naturally sweet and her talent distinctively native.

Her voice is remarkable, and I never heard another of its kind, for it is more like a stringed instrument than anything I can think of—metallic, but sweetly so, pure and true as a lark's, with falls and slurs that are indescribably musical and human.

The love-eyed men and women lounging about her with their guitars and ukuleles, garlanded with drooping roses and carnations and ginger, were commendably vain of showing off their first singer in the land, and thrummed their loveliest to her every song.

Her husband, who worked as the driver of a delivery wagon, wanted to accompany the band on the tour to protect his wife, but Joel C. Cohen, the group's manager, was unwilling to raise the extra funds for his travel expenses.

The conflict between the two men resulted in Nani Alapai leaving the tour and being replaced as the lead female singer by Annie Leilehua Brown, one of her understudies.

Cohen aired his frustration with the unreasonable request to the press, much to the chagrin of Nani Alapai, who defended her husband and refused to reconsider.

[34] She was also regarded as one of the first vocalists to publicly perform Queen Liliʻuokalani's song "Aloha ʻOe" and helped popularize it in the United States.

[25] Her obituary in The Honolulu Advertiser noted that she "possessed a rich voice of wide range and excelled particularly in the rendition of the sweet songs of her native land.

"[17] Madame Alapai's protégés and students included Annie Leilehua Brown and the Hawaiian soprano-falsetto singer and composer Lena Machado.

[13][41][42] Historian George Kanahele described how Machado sang with the "Hawaiian style reminiscent of Nani Alapai, Juliana Walanika, and Helen Desha Beamer.

"[43][44] Although he was born after Alapai's death, and never heard her perform, her grandson Kahauanu Lake credited her, his mother and his Parker relations with influencing his musical career.