Leela Gilday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Folk
- pop
- Guitar
- vocals
Leela Gilday | |
|---|---|
 Gilday in 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada |
| Genres |
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| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments |
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| Labels | Diva Sound Records[1] |
| Website | leelagilday |
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.
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.
