3 minute read
BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES
WITH JUNO AWARD-WINNER CELEIGH CARDINAL
By Tamara Aschenbrenner
Cover Photo: Brayden Treble
In the realm of soul-stirring melodies and evocative storytelling, Celeigh Cardinal emergers as a luminary. Hailing from Alberta, this Métis singer-songwriter has etched her name into the contemporary folk and soul landscape. Her crowning achievement, the 2019 album Stories from a Downtown Apartment, not only tugged at heartstrings but also clinched the coveted Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year in 2020. Now, the anticipation builds for her debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a collaboration set to redefine the boundaries of her artistry, and her upcoming album.
1) What are you looking forward to while working with the Edmonton Symphony?
Standing in front of an orchestra and having this wave of music behind me. Honestly, I’ve always wanted to be Bette Midler from the movie Beaches. At the end she’s playing with this orchestra, she’s singing the glory of love, and I always think about that. That was a dream when I was a kid.
2) How did this opportunity come about?
It actually came from Lucas Walden, who used to be a conductor with the ESO. He put together a show and has been pitching it to orchestras across Canada… This is our Edmonton debut and just the second time that we’d be doing this show.
3) What will be a challenge?
We’re going to be doing some songs that have not been released yet. They’re going to be coming out of my new album, which I’m releasing in June, and a couple of the songs are really heavy. We’ve never performed them before because there’s orchestration on the recordings, but we’ve never been able to play them live with an orchestra.
4) You mention some heavy content. Could you elaborate?
The album is going to be called Boundless Possibilities, and that is the title track of the album. It’s a spoken word poem that I wrote about a friend of mine who passed away in 2020, and I had a dream about her the night after she passed away, where she came from… wherever people go… and visited me, sat on my bed, and we talked. The idea is that she came back into my life and showed me that there’s so much more than what we think there is, that life is full of boundless possibilities. So there’s a lot of grief involved in this album: her passing and also my son’s father passed away in 2020 as well. And of course, 2020 was a year of grieving for everybody.
5) What’s your favourite song to perform?
It changes all the time. Right now, my favourite song on the album to perform is one called “Show You How to Love Me” and it’s super pop-y. I would say there’s a mixture of Prince and the bridge makes me think of Lady Gaga or Madonna. It’s kind of all over the place, but it’s definitely super pop-y. I wrote it with my bass player and that’s the first time we’ve ever written together. But that means it’s funky, and I love to sing it.
6) What are you looking forward to in 2024?
I’m looking forward to the release of this album. It’s going to feel—just this process of letting go once it’s out there. It’s going to feel like such a relief. This album is absolutely my best album so far.
Celeigh Cardinal with the ESO: April 26 & 27 at Winspear Centre, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Sq. | winspearcentre.com
