Halifax musician Zamani Miller is one of five artists from across the country chosen for the SOCAN Foundation’s 2020 Young Canadian Songwriters Award.
Miller’s composition Sway the World earned one of the award’s five $5,000 cash prizes which are presented to young creators aged 21 or less, selected by a jury of renowned Canadian songwriters.
She joins Quebec songwriter Melissa Doyon with Chaque fois, Ontario’s Chiamaka Azubuike for Ceilings, Bedsheets by Manitoba songwriter Olivia Lunny and from British Columbia, Madison Maria for Closer.
“The Young Canadian Songwriter Awards are made possible with our ongoing partnership with SiriusXM Canada, which has allowed for the opportunity to celebrate, empower, and identify the next generation of songwriters in Canada," said SOCAN Foundation’s executive director, Charlie Wall-Andrews in the award announcement.
“All award recipients are ‘ones to watch’ as they evolve in their careers and contribute to advancing Canadian music and its creation.”
For the past six years, Miller has been earning a reputation for bold, personal songs combining soul, pop, jazz and folk styles in her own unique blend of sounds. Writing, performing and producing with the name Zamani Folade, her duets with Amariah Bernard Washington earned both an ANSMA Portia White Award and a Jongleur Youth Arts Performance Award in 2018, while her song What’s So Great About Him from the Tamar Dina short film Cockblock picked up a FIN Atlantic International Film Festival Award for best Atlantic original score in 2019.
Her latest song and video release, Outside, features a striking clip filmed around the city of Accra, Ghana during a trip to West Africa, which underlines the song’s lyrics about race, class and otherness.
An alumnus of the esteemed Gordie Sampson Songwriting Camp in Ingonish, Miller has also collaborated with East Coast artists like T. Thomason, Ria Mae and Port Cities as well as songwriters in Montreal and Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by SirusXM, the Young Canadians Songwriters Award’s jury included Nova Scotia artists Rose Cousins and Kayo, the Sheepdogs’ Ewan Currie, singer/guitarist Melissa Laveaux and Mike Clay from Montreal’s Clay and Friends.
“It was a pleasure to bear witness to the high calibre of Canada's next wave of young songwriters,” said Currie about his jury experience.
For more about SOCAN Foundation and its award winners, visit www.socanfoundation.ca/2020-songwriters.
