Laila Biali

About

The artist

Laila Biali is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, pianist, arranger, producer, bandleader, and national radio host. Born in Vancouver, she trained as a classical pianist before moving to Toronto as a teenager and studying music at Humber College. She released Introducing the Laila Biali Trio in 2003 and developed a career that has included her own ensembles, international touring, and performances with Sting, Chris Botti, Suzanne Vega, and Paula Cole. Tracing Light received her first JUNO Award nomination in 2011. Later albums expanded her writing across vocal jazz, pop, soul, and orchestral colour. Her self-titled 2018 album won the 2019 JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, while Out of Dust and Your Requests received further JUNO nominations. Since 2017, Biali has hosted CBC Music's national Saturday Night Jazz program. Your Requests, released in 2023, returned to jazz standards through ten audience-selected songs, with arrangements by Biali and guest appearances from Kurt Elling, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Caity Gyorgy, Anat Cohen, and Grégoire Maret. Biali and drummer Ben Wittman co-produced the album. Wintersongs followed in November 2024 as an original seasonal song cycle inspired by a Banff Centre writing residency. Biali wrote most of the material, performed voice and piano, and co-produced it with Wittman. The recording combines her core jazz ensemble with the Venuti String Quartet, chamber orchestra, Jane Bunnett, and orchestrations by Rob Mathes. Wintersongs was nominated for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the 2025 JUNO Awards and for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 2026 GRAMMY Awards. An expanded edition arrived in December 2025. The exact Spotify identity currently contains 33 principal album and single containers from October 2010 through December 2025: eight albums and 25 singles. That provider count begins with Tracing Light and does not include her documented earlier recordings. Her current official calendar lists Canadian and United States dates through February 2027, including Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Toronto performances. Current artist-controlled Bandcamp metadata and ACT's artist profile identify her with Toronto, Ontario. Professional inquiries are directed through the contact page on her official website, which lists booking representatives for Canada, Quebec, and the United States. Spotify media is rendered live with provider attribution and a monogram fallback.