Biography
Kelly Fraser (August 8, 1993 – December 24, 2019) was a Canadian Inuk pop singer and songwriter, whose second album, Sedna, received a Juno Award nomination for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2018.
Fraser first attracted widespread attention in 2013 with a series of Inuktitut-language covers of pop songs, most notably Rihanna's "Diamonds", on YouTube. She released her debut album, Isuma, in 2014. Isuma was recorded with her bandmates from Sanikiluaq, with seven original and three cover songs. The title means 'think'.
Sedna was released on February 25, 2017, by Nunavut's Hitmakerz record label. The title of the album, known as ᓄᓕᐊᔪᒃ (Nuliaju) in Inuktitut, refers to the story of Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, which Fraser decided to modernize in this album. She said, "The goal of the album is to help heal those suffering from the effects of colonization, including the damaging effects of residential school and forced relocation. There is a great need for Inuit artists to directly speak to those affected from the past."
Fraser’s songs include Inuktitut and English language, and musically, combine contemporary pop with traditional Inuit sounds. Fraser was dedicated to sharing Inuit culture with a widespread audience and raising awareness of present-day issues and Inuit rights; many of these themes feature heavily in her music. Her producer reported that she was working on another album, to be called Decolonize, when she died.
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