Kingston’s very own Miss Emily is newly nominated for her second JUNO Award for Blues Album of the Year for her newest album, The Medicine. With a soulful, powerhouse voice and expressive lyrics to match, her newest album is filled with spellbinding tunes. Beyond creating her own music, she’s also an advocate for emerging Kingston artists. I had the opportunity to chat with her in January about what life looks like for a full-time musician, the magic of live music events, and her International Women’s Day Showcase, which uplifts emerging women and non-binary artists in collaboration with the City of Kingston.
Photo credit: Céline Klein
I know January's been a busy month, especially with the release of your new album in November—what have you been up to in the last little while?
Well, the biggest news is, a week ago today, I was nominated for a JUNO. So that's the big one. I was literally boarding a plane, from New Orleans to Newark, New Jersey, and I got the news literally with one foot on the aircraft. Then trying to explain it to people around me because I was obviously very excited, but crying at the same time, and they were like, “You okay?” And you have to say it’s a Canadian Grammy. They don't know what a JUNO is.
I was in New Orleans for the Folk Alliance International Conference, which was great. I'm with this amazing agency called Black Oak Artists in the States, and they're a wonderful home-away-from-home family at a lot of these conferences, and… they pretty much book all my U.S. side shows. So I [played] Syracuse, New York, that was my first show back on January 10th, and we had a sold out show there, which is awesome. Then I played a festival in New Jersey, which I play every year in Asbury Park, called the Light of Day Festival; it's a really special festival, and raises money and awareness for Parkinson's disease research, ALS, and other neurological diseases. I've been with the organization for 11 years and [am a] very passionate member.
Now we're into February, but I love it. I love being busy and having exciting things on the go, you know?
That’s so beyond exciting. Hearing that news when getting on the plane, not being able to talk to anyone, and just sitting with that news on the mind must have been an amazing feeling.
I mean, I talk to everyone anyway, but the flight attendants were looking at me like, “Are you okay? Is this some sort of weird crisis?” And I was just trying to get out my words about what's just happened… They were really sweet and excited with me and that's awesome. People are so nice.
For anyone who hasn't heard about the International Women's Day event, tell us a little bit about it.
I came to Moira Demorest, who's the Music Officer for Kingston, [around] a year and a half, two years ago—sometime in 2024—and I said, “I really, really want to put together a showcase of young women in Kingston.”
I’ve had this amazing career in the city—and when I say amazing, I mean, I can do art full time. I can make music full time. Kingston is such a special place to live because in a lot of cities it wouldn't have been feasible for me to raise a child, have a mortgage, and play music full time… but I've been able to do it. And that, I think, is the point. As a woman, the odds get a lot smaller [for this to be] possible. I really credit part of that to the city, how it supports the arts…
I've always felt [in this industry] there's an opportunity to inspire and be inspired.
I approached Moira and I said, “Is there any way that City Kingston might want to team up and do a Miss Emily showcase, where we showcase a bunch of young women in the city?” Hopefully, we can bring in a combination of their fan bases into my fan base, so all these music supporters can gather and support all these different artists at the same time, and go to more shows. It's a networking thing for the women involved on stage, but also the audiences because they're a crucial piece of the puzzle. So, we were trying to find a date, but of course, we could not. And then I think it was Moira who suggested International Women's Day, which was quite a few months away at the time… It worked great.
We had our very first event last year. It sold out… I don't get to go to a lot of music in Kingston because I'm touring and working a lot. [Moira’s] opened up this whole new array of artists who I didn't even know about. So it's been a lot of fun to put together, and I'm really excited about this year's lineup, and I don't even know everybody involved. I'm excited in the coming weeks, I'll get to know them better and reach out, connect, and then, of course, share some space on the 7th of March. It’ll be so exciting… there's so many music venues in Kingston, and opportunities. I'm so inspired by it.
Heading into this year's performances, I know there's a few artists on deck. What are you looking forward to most about each of them? Is there anything unique sonically or otherwise that they bring to the table?
I'm gonna start with Atiari… I just heard a little bit of the music and that was a Moira recommendation. I'm super excited to meet her and hear her live, just really excited with all that's gonna happen there.
I've known Luella since she was a baby. Her parents are friends of mine. Her dad's a musician in Kingston. I've known him since I moved there in 2004. I remember when she was one year old, [I was there when] they were recording something in the lobby of the Grand Theatre… and then all of a sudden this really beautiful high voice comes in, right in key, above everything. [There was] another artist in the room who had a huge range and they looked over and thought it was him. And then we realized it's the baby. So here we are all these years later…
Piner; I met her when she was, like, 15 or something, doing a youth songwriting workshop. Her stage name was a new thing at that time, but now she’s been doing this for 10-plus years? She's doing amazing things.
[Finally,] Kyra, she was working at the Toucan a number of years ago and she started taking some lessons with me, and I was really impressed by how unique her sound is. Of course, since then, listening to her songwriting is really great, and she is such a talent.
[The event is] a great way for the city to support more artists. I’m really glad artists can network with each other because I felt like it was a really lonely world when I was in my 20s, as a full-time artist in Kingston, and a mom, because I found that I was pregnant just a few months after I went full-time. So my daughter's been on this journey with me the whole time and being a parent in this industry was really uniquely lonely as well. So now, I’m like, how can I change it for the artists that have come into the scene after me? So they don't ever feel alone. So they always feel supported by their community and by each other, and can let the musicians and the talent of the city thrive, thrive, thrive.
Photo credit: Céline Klein
As someone who's been working in Kingston for so long, and gets to do events like this International Women’s Day Showcase now, what does it mean to you to be able to uplift women and non-binary artists across the community?
I mean, aside from the fact that, selfishly, I just love that I get to have a gig where I get to be in the show and enjoy the show at the same time. Those are the best ones —festivals, where there's a whole lineup of artists I can watch, but also be in the show. I mean, those are my favourites. So something like this falls under that category…
I [also] feel a bit of a duty, but in the most beautiful way. And I feel really inspired, you know? I feel really inspired to create situations and opportunities that weren't there for me when I was earlier during my career, because it's also not necessarily a younger thing… It's really just young in their career … We don't tolerate sexism, we don't tolerate racism. Why do we tolerate ageism?... [This is an all-ages event] and I'm so, so glad.
A live music event can be such a religious experience—for lack of a better word—for anyone of any age; something about that collective experience of listening all at once is so special.
You're so right. When I was growing up, and I’m from Prince Edward County, it was super rural. When I was growing up in the '80s and early '90s, we went to church every Sunday. That was your community. Even people who weren't really religious went to church. Churches have really gone by the wayside with many religions and so we don't have that community gathering as much. And live music, I believe, has taken the place of that, because where people get weirded out by God, and who believes in what, with live music, you can really have that [same] inspiring, out of body experience among a community of like-minded people who are there because they want to see the same act.
That tells me it has in some ways replaced church or added to that [type of] community experience in such an important way… I write a mantra every day, and the last little bit of it says,
“I bring joy to this world through music, love, and community.” I know that's part of my life's purpose… You get those three things at a live music event. I love this business. I love being in it.
Photo credit: Logan Somers
Miss Emily (Emily Fennell) is an international touring Soul-Blues-Americana artist based in Kingston, Ontario. She is an International Songwriting Competition Winner, 4 x Canadian Blues Award Winner and has just been nominated for her second JUNO in the Blues Album of the Year category (2022 & 2026). Miss Emily’s International Women’s Day Showcase will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2026, and tickets can be found here.
This story is written by Michaela Tassone, created in partnership between Kingston Music Office and Kingston Theatre Alliance. Photo and bio for Tassone can be found here.
