- Source: Alysha Brilla
Alysha Brilla (born November 3, 1988) is an Indo-Canadian musician, songwriter, and music producer. Brilla's music career includes festival performances at WOMAD, Woodford Folk and Montreal Jazz. Her music focuses on themes of connection and healing. Born in Mississauga, Ontario and raised in Brampton, Ontario, she started singing in her early teens in local bands and at festivals. In 2010, she signed a major record deal at Lava/Universal Republic Records. Brilla has since released all of her music independently on her own music label, Sunny Jam Records. Brilla has received three Juno Award nominations for her self-produced albums.
Early life
Brilla was born in Mississauga, Ontario to her mother Kathryn Brillinger, a college communications teacher, and Tanzanian-born father Yasin Dewji, a bass guitarist. Her father introduced her to jazz. As a bass guitarist, he would play gigs with her later on. Brilla changed her name from "Brillinger" to "Brilla", which had been a long time nickname.
Career
Jacksoul keyboardist and producer Ron Lopata and friend Brad Marshall introduced Brilla's eleven-song EP demo Got Soul to industry attention.
On July 26, 2015, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Brilla along with sisters Tameera and Nadia were pulled over by Waterloo Regional Police for bicycle riding topless, with the officer oblivious to the Ontario mandated female right to topless freedom due to a 1996 acquittal of Gwen Jacob by the Ontario Court of Appeal. A week later, the sisters then subsequently organized and held a rally at Waterloo Town Square, under the "Bare With Us" banner, to educate the public about the female topless freedom right with Jacob, the central defendant in the Ontario Court of Appeal 1996 acquittal case of R. v. Jacob making an appearance.
She composed music for Fawzia Mirza's 2023 film The Queen of My Dreams.
Awards and honours
2017 JUNO Award Nomination for "Rooted", Adult Contemporary Album of the Year
2016 Winner Midem Artist Accelerator, represented Canada in Cannes, France
2015 International Songwriting Contest winner in Lyric Category "Immigrant"
2015 JUNO Award Nomination for "Womyn", Adult Contemporary Album of the Year
2014 U.K. Songwriting Contest winner in Pop and Singer/Songwriter categories for "Never Gonna Get Me Back"
2014 Oktoberfest Woman of The Year winner.
2014 JUNO Award Nomination for "In My Head", Adult Contemporary Album of the Year
Studio albums
References
External links
Official website
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Alysha Brilla
- Alisha
- The Queen of My Dreams
- Danny Michel
- Female toplessness in Canada
- List of people from Mississauga
- 2016 in Canadian music
- 12th Canadian Screen Awards
- Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year
- Juno Awards of 2018
