Sign up for AIM news
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
JUNO award-winning artist Leela Gilday is a Dene trail breaker.
Confessing her stories to her audiences with a gutsy voice and open stage presence, Gilday weaves her experiences as a northerner, a member of the Dene Nation, and a traveller into a beautiful world that transports the listener.
If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage at the largest venues in the country.
Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Denmark, New Zealand and Europe. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20+ year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. She believes music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself.
Five years after her last album was released—five years of growth, healing and head-down work—Leela’s fifth album was released in Spring 2019. It is more raw, intimate and “more Leela” than anything you’ve heard from her before.
Your enjoyment of “North Star Calling” will hinge on your affection for Leela Gilday’s passionate vocals. Each song on the album is a showcase for her strong, commanding voice. The songs in this collection inhabit the spaces between country, pop and rock. Sonic landscapes where singers like Sarah MacLachlan and Jann Arden sell millions of records. Gilday is far from a carbon copy of them though. Her songs take chances.”
“Leela Gilday’s voice comes straight from the heart. It’s the voice of a winner; the song of a warrior. That’s the call of Leela Gilday.”