TANYA TAGAQ GILLIS
… she was a dynamo, delivering a sort of gothic sound art while she stalked the small basement stage with feral energy.
– Jon Caramanica, The New York Times
Tanya Tagaq Gillis is an Inuit throat singer from Nunavut in Canada’s high arctic. Tanya was surrounded by Inuit culture growing up, but it was the sound of pop giants Janis Joplin and the Doors that first captured her imagination. Improvising most of her performances, she says: “It feels like I dial in another frequency. I go to places where I surrender to all that terrifies and excites me.”
She is known for her collaborations and concert tours with Björk, Mike Patton and rapper Buck 65 and has performed with the Kronos Quartet at various locations including Carnegie Hall. She also dazzled audiences at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
Tanya has released two critically acclaimed albums – Sinaa (2005) for which she won Best Female Artist at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, and Auk/Blood (2008) which also won a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award.