Singer-songwriter Elisapie and classical soprano Deantha Edmunds, CM, have each won Juno awards for the 2025 award cycle. Elisapie won the Adult Alternative Album of the Year for her album Inuktitut (2023), while Edmunds won the Classical Soprano Award for her composition “Angmalukisaa” (2024). This marks the third Juno win for Elisapie and the first for Edmunds, who is also the first Indigenous woman to win the Juno award for classical composition of the year as a composer.
“I’m so proud to be singing in my language and I would just like to say thank you to all the artists who accepted for me to translate their songs, who meant so much to us for the last 40 years,” Elisapie said during her acceptance speech. Originally from Salluit, Nunavik, QC, and currently based in Montreal, QC, she is known for mixing English, French and Inuktitut in her songs.
Elisapie has been nominated for several awards over the years, including the Canadian Screen Awards in 2014 for Best Original Song, Polaris Music Prize in 2019 and multiple Juno awards. Elisapie’s other Juno award wins include last year’s award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year for Inuktitut and Aboriginal Recording of the Year in 2005, alongside her band, for the album Taima (2004).
In her own acceptance speech, Edmunds thanked her family and Mark Fewer, who commissioned “Angmalukisaa,” as well as the composition’s translator and other composers. “Nakurmiik, this means the world,” she said. From St. John’s, NL, Edmunds grew up with music and went on to study it at Acadia University and Concordia University, later learning the history of European music in coastal Labrador Inuit communities and inspiring her to compose classical music.
In 2024 she was named ArtsNL’s Artist of the Year and was the recipient of one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s inaugural Premier’s Medal for the Arts and Heritage. Edmunds was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023 for her contributions as a writer, composer, performer and mentor. “Angmaluksiaa” was recorded on the Newfoundland Symphony orchestra Sinfonia Alikeness album, which was conducted by Mark Fewer. Edmunds was also nominated in the Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble category for the album.
The artists were all smiles at the gala, both wearing fabulous earrings: Elisapie’s by Katie Pootoogook-Manomie and Edmunds’ by Mathew Nuqingaq. Congratulations from the IAQ!