Alysha Brilla
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Alysha Brilla | |
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 Brilla in 2022 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alysha Mohamed |
| Born | November 3, 1988 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada |
| Origin | Kitchener, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments |
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| Labels | Lava Universal Republic Records Sunny Jam |
| Website | alyshabrilla |
Alysha Brilla (born Alysha Mohamed on November 3, 1988) is a 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.[1] 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 and education
Brilla was born in Mississauga, Ontario to a European-Canadian mother and an Indo-Tanzanian father of Khoja descent. Growing up in a mixed-race, mixed-religious household fostered dialectical discussions around race, religion, value systems and ideals. Brilla's father played guitar while growing up in Tanzania and her mother was an avid storyteller. Brilla experienced bullying in middle school and she cites music and nature as her coping mechanism.
She dropped out of school and on her 14th birthday, Brilla was given her father's acoustic guitar and she began teaching herself to play before returning to and eventually graduating high school, before moving to Toronto.
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.[2] 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 Gwen Jacob, the central defendant in the Supreme Court case of R. v. Jacob making an appearance.[3][4]
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[5]
- 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" [6]
- 2014 Oktoberfest Woman of The Year winner.
- 2014 JUNO Award Nomination for "In My Head", Adult Contemporary Album of the Year [7]
Studio albums
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Brilla |
| 2013 | In My Head |
| 2014 | Woman |
| 2016 | Human |
| 2017 | Rooted |
| 2022 | Circle |
References
- ^ "Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc. - New Signings for LAVA and Cherry Lane". Cherrylane.com. 2010-06-14. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
- ^ "Three Ontario sisters say they were stopped by police for biking topless". Globe and Mail. July 28, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^ "Women's topless rights rally draws big crowd in Waterloo, Ont". CBC News. August 1, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^ Mangione, Kendra (July 28, 2015). "'Bare with us': Ontario sisters to host topless protest". Retrieved August 19, 2024.
- ^ "Midem Artist Accelerator finalists revealed". Musicweek.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ "2014 Results". Songwritingcontest.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ "2014 Juno Nominees & Winners". Archived from the original on 2015-01-27.
External links
| Authority control databases: Artists |
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