Elisapie And Dominique Fils-Aimé Earn 2024 JUNO Nominations

Congratulations to Elisapie and Dominique Fils Aimé for their nominations for this year's JUNO Awards. Elisapie is nominated for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year as well as Album Artwork of the Year for Inuktitut, released via Bonsound. Dominique is nominated for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year for her album Our Roots Run Deep, released via Ensoul Records. 

This marks the third JUNO nomination for Elisapie, following a win for Aboriginal Recording of the Year in 2005 with her band Taima and a nomination in 2019 for Indigenous Music Album of the Year for her album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, which was also a shortlist finalist for the Polaris Music Prize.

On Inuktitut, Elisapie reinvigorates the poetry of 10 classics from Leonard Cohen, Blondie, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and more by translating and singing them in her mother tongue. Each song, produced by her close collaborator Joe Grass, is linked to a loved one or an intimate story that shaped Elisapie's identity.

Through this act of cultural reappropriation, she tells her story and offers these songs as a gift to her community, making her language and culture resonate beyond the borders of the Inuit territory. The album spent four weeks in the Top 10 album sales charts in Canada, and five consecutive weeks at #1 on the earshot charts, while garnering attention from KEXP, Le Monde, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The National (CBC News), ELLE Canada, Exclaim!, CBC Music, Toronto Star, La Presse, Le Devoir and many others.

Elisapie is currently on an international tour in support of the release, with a special New York City date in the works. More information can be found here. 

Dominique is also a previous winner, having been awarded the 2020 JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year for her second album, Stay Tuned!. That album would also go on to be shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize as well as win the Félix prize for Best Jazz Album at the 2019 ADISQ Gala. 

Recorded and mixed at Opus Studios in Dolby Atmos Surround Sound by producer Jacques Roy, Our Roots Run Deep is the start of a new album trilogy for Dominique. She frames her latest installment with a loose, dreamlike narrative structure that tells a story of growth. For Dominique, nature acts as an anchor—a source of inspiration that provides her with metaphors to express the unique but interconnected journey of a human being.

Throughout, Dominique provides an enveloping spaciousness in her work by creating her own musical language. The result is a sonic space where the listener can feel and dream alongside innovative melodic structures.

Dominique will be making a special US performance in Los Angeles on February 15 at Raymond Kabbaz Theatre, offering a unique chance for American audiences to catch a vanguard voice in contemporary vocal jazz music. Tickets and more information are available here.

About Elisapie:

Elisapie's unconditional attachment to her territory and her language, Inuktitut, remains at the core of her creative journey. Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik which is only accessible by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Since winning her first Juno Award in 2005 with her band Taima, Elisapie's body of work has been praised many times.

Her 2018 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and earned her numerous Félix Awards as well as a Juno nomination. Since then, the Inuk artist performed with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal at the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, at the SummerStage Festival in New York City's Central Park, and at the NPR offices for her own Tiny Desk Session, as well as at several local and international venues and festivals.

Always surrounded by the best musicians from the Montreal indie and folk scenes, Elisapie makes her culture resonate with finesse by mixing modernity and tradition.

About Dominique Fils-Aimé:

A rising star in vocal jazz, Dominique Fils-Aimé presents her fourth album Our Roots Run Deep released in September 2023 on Ensoul Records. Dominique Fils-Aimé is a JUNO Award winning singer-songwriter from Montreal who puts the history of African-American musical culture into the heart of her work.

Her new show invites you to delve into the roots of her soul with a strong desire to connect with one's higher self, and the intention of enveloping you in a soothing aural embrace. On stage, whether in Canada (double bill with Allison Russell, Toronto's Koerner Hall), in Europe (opening acts for Melody Gardot, Diana Krall and Ibrahim Maalouf), Dominique Fils-Aimé's magnetic presence on stage leads the audience on a transcendent journey.

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