Laila Biali returns with her latest album, Wintersongs, released on November 1. Wintersongs is a collection of winter and holiday songs just in time for the holiday season. It’s Biali’s first holiday album, tenth studio album overall and the follow-up to the JUNO-nominated 2023 album Your Requests.
Three years in the making, Wintersongs was conceptualized while Biali was attending a self-directed residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a learning organizatioon founded by University of Alberta dedicated to artistic and creative development. Loocated in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Biali has been attending residencies and workshops there since 2003 and calls Banff her “creative home.” Every Biali album since 2015 has been written at Banff Centre.”I don’t like winter typically, but when I was at Banff, I fell in love with winter, says Biali in conversation with Brad Barker. “I wanted this album to be an ode to nature…In some ways this was a gift to myself but to others as well , I wanted to bring them something that would warm their winter days.
The album was preceded by two singles, “Rocky Mountain Lullaby,” and “Winter Waltz.” She joined Brad Barker last week to talk about the album and her upcoming tour, including a sold-out show at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London on November 25 and a show in Toronto in collaboration with Tyndale University on November 30.
Wintersongs is available now on all streaming platforms, physical copies are available for purchase on lailabiali.com. Tickets for her Toronto show are available here.
