Edmonton-primarily based Métis singer-songwriter Celeigh Cardinal has acquired one particular of the optimum honours in Canadian songs.
Cardinal earned a 2020 Juno Award for Indigenous Artist of the Calendar year on Monday through a exclusive virtual ceremony immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled in-individual ceremonies that were set to just take spot in Saskatoon in March.
Rather of going for walks the purple carpet, Cardinal watched the announcement from household.
“Has it sunk in still? I you should not imagine so,” Cardinal explained in an interview Wednesday with CBC Radio’s Edmonton AM.
“But there is a silver lining to not being in a position to walk throughout the stage and acquire the award and it can be that I received to sit with my family. My son was there and my two finest good friends.
“To find out I received the award with them, that was fairly amazing and I never know if I would want to trade that for everything.”
The recognition follows the 2019 launch of Cardinal’s critically-acclaimed independent album Stories From A Downtown Condominium.
Following additional than two many years in the market, splitting her time between music and motherhood, the award feels like validation, Cardinal mentioned.
“You create these tracks and you happen to be telling tales about your lifetime,” she stated. “And you just hope that it is intriguing enough for men and women to like it and relate to it in some way, and I feel like which is occurred.
“That can make me truly feel like probably I’m on the ideal route.”
Cardinal — originally from Grande Prairie — has lived in Edmonton for years and her critically-acclaimed album drew inspiration from the town.
The artwork for the album was shot from her downtown apartment, with numerous of the songs penned on the piano proper beside the sofa on the include art.
The album revolves all-around her activities residing in the city’s downtown but at its core, it’s a crack up history.
“There are adore tracks and there are also heartbreak tracks,” Cardinal stated.
“My most well-known music is The Devil is a Blue-Eyed Male which is generally about the fact that I have a sample of slipping in enjoy with males with blue eyes and it has never ever labored out for me still.
“We all have these designs and human encounters like slipping in love can be heartbreaking, and people today see by themselves there.”
Cardinal stated she was in Saskatoon when the Juno ceremonies had been at first cancelled and the pandemic commenced sending Canadians into isolation. She experienced just returned from a pageant gig in Germany. She rented a auto and drove home.
‘The globe just stopped’
She’s taken the months of isolation to reconnect with her new music. After a quick reprieve from composing, she designs to file an album this winter.
“Initially, it just felt like the entire world just stopped,” she said. “I came home to my condominium and life had entirely modified. I’ve genuinely taken some time to sluggish down simply because points ended up rather crazy for me.
“Originally, the songwriting was not happening. I permit the music go to the facet for a when but now I sort of sense a wave of songwriting coming.”
Of the five nominees for Indigenous Artist or Team of the Year, Edmonton-based mostly Cree band nêhiyawak was also nominated, recognized for their debut album Nipiy.
Cardinal claimed she hopes to use her Juno win to support boost other Indigenous artists across Canada.
“We have a pretty slim idea of what Indigenous artists do … And there is just so significantly more than that.”
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