Episode #181: Lalia Biali

About this episode

Laila Biali, a multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist, discusses her music career and achievements.

Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, CBC Music national radio host and 2026 GRAMMY Award nominee Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and supported international icon Sting. Her JUNO-nominated 2023 album, Your Requests, featured a stellar cast of guests and received a 4.5 star rave review in All About Jazz. Her previous release, Out of Dust, was also JUNO nominated (in 2021) and won Laila spots on “Best Album” lists around the globe. In 2020, Laila was honoured by SOCAN Music with the Hagood Hardy Award for Excellence in Songwriting. The previous year, Laila’s eponymous release won her a JUNO for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year” and top prize at the Canadian Songwriting Competition in the Jazz category. Laila was the youngest-ever double winner at Canada’s National Jazz Awards when she was named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year”, and she received her first JUNO nomination for Tracing Light in 2011. When Laila isn’t on stage or in the studio, she’s busy hosting CBC Music’s national radio show, Saturday Night Jazz – a…

People in this episode

Host: Leander Young

Guest: Laila Biali

Topics covered

• music
• jazz
• songwriting
• GRAMMY Awards
• Canadian artists

Keywords

• Laila Biali
• jazz
• singer-songwriter
• CBC Music
• GRAMMY nominee
• JUNO Awards
• songwriting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CBC Music, All About Jazz, SOCAN Music, Canada’s National Jazz Awards

Books & works: Your Requests, Out of Dust, Tracing Light

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