Leela Gilday

Leela Gilday was born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. She is a singer/songwriter from the Dene Nation. Leela is Sahtugotine – of the Great Bear Lake
People on the mother’s side and Irish Canadian on father's side. Singer-songwriter Jay Gilday is her younger brother. Leela started singing at an early age, and her
performing career began at the Folk on the Rocks Music Festival stage when she was eight years old.
She graduated with a Bachelor's of Music degree from the University of Alberta in 1997. 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'. Her second album, 'Sedzé', was released in 2006 and won Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the 2007 Juno Awards. She won a second Juno Award 2021 for her fifth album 'North Star Calling' of 2019.
Her songwriting reflects her northern roots, explores her identity as a modern Urban Indian. She writes about the people and the land that created her. 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. 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.
In 2021, Leela and her brother Jay created the musical project Sechile Sedare (meaning ‘my younger brother, my older sister’ in the Dene language). This musical collaboration sees Jay and Leela co-write and co-create new repertoire together, harnessing their talents as deeply insightful and genuine storytellers. Their voices blend in perfect harmony, hitting notes of nostalgia, hope, humour and reflection. The songs, created during lockdown in 2021 and during a residency at the Banff Centre, share stories about their family history, their connection to the land and water, and the twists and turns of fate.

[https://www.leelagilday.com/about]