Tanya Tagaq Gillis, CM, throat singer, experimental musician, painter, novelist (born 5 May 1975 in
). An experimental artist who has achieved a level of mainstream crossover success, Tanya Tagaq blends Inuit throat singing (traditionally done as a duet) with electronic, classical, punk and rock music. The New Yorker characterized Tagaq’s voice as, “guttural heaves, juddering howls and murderous shrieks,” and praised her work for its “fearless lack of inhibition, technical skill and mastery of tradition.” A Juno Award, Canadian Aboriginal Music Award and Polaris Music Prize winner, Tagaq is part of what has been called the “Indigenous Music Renaissance” — an innovative new generation of Indigenous artists in Canada. She is also an acclaimed author and a Member of the Order of Canada.
Early Years and Career
Tagaq and her two brothers grew up in Cambridge Bay in a primarily Anglophone household. Her mother is an Inuk who was raised on Baffin Island, and her father is of British and Polish descent. She completed high school through correspondence in Cambridge Bay and graduated with a degree in fine art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (one of her oil paintings was selected for the cover of the 2003 Northwestel phone book).
While living in Halifax in her early 20s, Tagaq received a cassette from her mother of two women's throat singing. Though she never intended to become a professional singer, Tagaq developed the throat singing technique by imitating their voices and began performing for friends at parties. In 2000, while showcasing some of her paintings at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, she sang impromptu at a campfire one night and was asked to perform at the festival. Friends of Icelandic singer Björk saw her performance and Tagaq was later asked by Björk to join her upcoming world tour. Health issues eventually forced Tagaq to quit the tour, but in 2004, Björk asked Tagaq to sing on her album Medúlla.
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