Leela Gilday

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Leela Gilday
Leela Gilday.jpg
Gilday in 2011
Background information
Origin Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Genres
OccupationMusician
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • vocals
LabelsDiva Sound Records [1]
Website leelagilday.com

Leela Gilday is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. [2] She has released five solo albums since 2002, two of which have won the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year.

Contents

Early life

Gilday was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, [2] to an Irish Canadian father and a Dene mother. Singer-songwriter Jay Gilday is her younger brother. [3] [4] She graduated with a Bachelor's of Music degree from the University of Alberta in 1997. [5]

Career

In 2002, Gilday was awarded Best Female Artist, Best Folk Album, and Best Songwriter at the Canadian Indigenous Music Awards for her first release, Spirit World, Solid Wood. [6] She was also named in Maclean's Top 50 Under 30 that same year.[ citation needed ] In 2003, she was nominated at the Juno Awards for Best Music of Aboriginal Canada.[ citation needed ]

Her second album, Sedzé , was released in 2006 and won Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the 2007 Juno Awards. [7] Up Here named Gilday Northerner of the Year in 2007. [8]

Her third album, Calling All Warriors, was released in 2010. It won Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards. [9] In 2011, Gilday won Aboriginal Female Entertainer of the Year at the Aboriginal People's Choice Music Awards. [10]

Her fourth record, Heart of the People, was released in 2014 and was nominated for Aboriginal Album of the Year at the 2015 Juno Awards. [11] Her fifth album, North Star Calling, came out in 2019. Gilday won Indigenous Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, [12] and the album received the Indigenous Music Album of the Year honour at the 2021 Junos. [13]

In 2021, Gilday and her brother Jay created the musical project Sechile Sedare during the COVID-19 pandemic. [14]

In 2023, she participated with more than 50 other artists in the recording of a charity single for Kids Help Phone's Feel Out Loud campaign. The recording combines Serena Ryder's song What I Wouldn't Do with the bridge from Gilday's "North Star Calling". [15]

Outside of music, Gilday had a supporting role in the 2019 independent film Red Snow .

Discography

References

  1. ↑ Canada Council for the Arts (March 22, 2004), Leela Gilday
  2. 1 2 "5 Juno-nominated artists recommend their favourite books". CBC Books .
  3. ↑ "Singer-songwriter Jay Gilday takes subtler acoustic path to find his better musical self". Edmonton Journal.
  4. ↑ "N.W.T.'s Jay Gilday takes the stage in first indoor concert since pandemic". CBC Music .
  5. ↑ Rojas, Carmen (2007), "Northstar", Work of Arts: The Faculty of Arts in Review, pp. 4–7
  6. ↑ "Awards show honours aboriginal musicians". CBC News.
  7. ↑ "Past Nominees and Winners". Juno Awards. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  8. ↑ "The Movers And Shakers From Years Gone By". Up Here Publishing. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Western Canadian Music Awards 2010 winners". Breakout West. Retrieved August 20, 2024.
  10. ↑ Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (2010), Leela Gilday CD Release "Calling All Warriors", archived from the original on July 6, 2011, retrieved October 24, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Tanya Tagaq, Leela Gilday nominated for 2015 Juno Awards". CBC News .
  12. ↑ "Pharis & Jason Romero Head CFMA Winners List". FYI Music News, April 11, 2021.
  13. ↑ "N.W.T. artist Leela Gilday wins Juno for 'most vulnerable' album yet". CBC News.
  14. ↑ "Sechile Sedare". Queen's University.
  15. ↑ "Artists for Feel Out Loud supports the youth mental health movement with anthem". Kids Help Phone.,
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