Jill Barber (born February 6, 1980) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Originally associated with the

folk-pop Folk-pop is a musical style that may be 1) contemporary folk songs with large, sweeping pop arrangements, or 2) pop songs with intimate, acoustic-based folk arrangements. Recording production values created a unblemished style that appealed to ...

genre, she has performed

vocal jazz Vocal jazz or jazz singing is an approach to jazz using the voice. Vocal jazz emerged in the early twentieth century, with its roots in Blues. Popular blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey had a great deal of influence of jazz vocalis ...

and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

on her more recent albums."Jill Barber sings in French for 1st time with Chansons"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

, February 13, 2013.

Early life

Barber was born and raised in

Port Credit Port Credit is a neighbourhood in the south-central part of the City of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, located at the mouth of the Credit River on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Its main intersection is Hurontario Street and Lakeshore Road ...

, a neighbourhood in the south-central part of Mississauga, just west of Toronto. Her brother is singer-songwriter

Matthew Barber Matthew Barber (born January 10, 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. His music has been classified as indie pop and pop rock with folk and alternative country influences. Barber was born and grew up in Port Credit, which is part of Missis ...

. She studied at Queen's University before pursuing her musical career full time.

Career

Barber won the Female Artist Recording of the Year award for her debut album ''Oh Heart'' at the 2005 Music Nova Scotia Awards. In 2007, Barber earned her fourth win as Best Local Solo Artist (Female) in '' The Coast''’s annual "Best of Music Reader’s Poll", and her first win as Best Canadian Solo Artist (Female). From February to March 2007, she toured Eastern Canada with

Dan Hill Daniel Grafton Hill IV (born 3 June 1954) is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major international hits with his songs " Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try", a duet with Vonda Shepard, as well as a number of other charti ...

as part of

Stuart McLean Andrew Stuart McLean, (April 19, 1948 – February 15, 2017) was a Canadian radio broadcaster, humorist, monologist, and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio program ''The Vinyl Cafe''.CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

show '' The Vinyl Cafe''. She returned to the Vinyl Cafe Tour in 2009 performing across Canada with

Matt Andersen Matt Andersen is a Canadian blues guitarist and singer-songwriter from Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, signed to True North Records. He is a Juno Award nominee. His musical career started in 2002 with the New Brunswick band Flat Top. Career In add ...

. In 2008, Barber released '' Chances'', a jazz album with full orchestral arrangements which was partially co-written with her producer Les Cooper, while also collaborating on several songs with Canadian music legend

Ron Sexsmith Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has s ...

. This album led to a new level in touring reaching audiences across the globe while earning two Juno Award nominations including New Artist of the Year. The title track to this album was featured on the Netflix series '' Orange Is the New Black'', at the end of season 1, episode 1. She followed up with the album ''Mischievous Moon'', released through

Outside Music Outside Music is a Canadian record label and distributor founded by Lloyd Nishimura in 2001. In 2007, it expanded to include an artist management division which includes Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Aidan Knight, Justin Rutledge as management ...

in 2011. In the same year, Jill and Matthew Barber collaborated on a cover of The Hardship Post's "Your Sunshine", which appeared on the charity compilation album '' Have Not Been the Same – Vol. 1: Too Cool to Live, Too Smart to Die''.
'' Exclaim!'', November 14, 2011. Barber has performed predominantly in English. She has also recorded and performed "Une femme doit faire" and French translations of two of her songs, "All My Dreams" (''"Tous mes rêves"'') and "Tell Me" (''"Dis-moi"''). Her 2013 album ''Chansons'', a selection of

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of classic songs from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and France, was her first album of material recorded and performed entirely in French. Barber won the SiriusXM 2012 Jazz Artist of the Year award, as well as the 2013 Western Canadian Francophone Album of the Year for ''

Chansons A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

''. In 2016, Barber co-produced an album ''The Family Album'', with her brother

, also a singer-songwriter. The album consists of original songs written by Jill and Matthew Barber along with covers of songs by Canadian artists, Gene MacClellan Ian Tyson, and Neil Young. The album won a Juno award for Contemporary Roots Album of the year in 2017. Her solo album, ''Metaphora'', was released in June 2018. She followed up with another French-language album, ''Entre nous'', in 2020, and with ''Homemaker'' in 2023.

Author

Barber has written two children's books, ''Baby's Lullaby'' and ''Music is for Everyone.''

Charity

Barber is mentor to young women as part of the Girls Action Foundation's Light A Spark initiative, and an ambassador for

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

Personal life

Barber is married to

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...

personality

Grant Lawrence Grant Lawrence (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian broadcaster, musician and writer based in Vancouver, primarily associated with CBC Music and CBC Radio 3. Lawrence was also the vocalist for the indie rock group The Smugglers.Michael Barclay, Ian ...

.Surgeoner, Brae (November 2008).
Jill Barber: This is no faded love
", ''

BeatRoute ''BeatRoute'' is a monthly print and online magazine published in Western Canada. The magazine is distributed across Alberta and British Columbia, with offices in Calgary and Vancouver. BeatRoute is a primarily music-oriented publication, with a ci ...

''. Retrieved April 19, 2010. They have two children.

Discography

*2002: '' A Note to Follow So'' *2004: '' Oh Heart'' *2006: ''

For All Time ''For All Time'' is a 2000 American television science fiction drama film starring Mark Harmon, Mary McDonnell, and Catherine Hicks. It was based on ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "A Stop at Willoughby" written by Rod Serling. The teleplay was by ...

'' *2008: '' Chances'' *2011: '' Mischievous Moon'' *2013: ''

'' *2014: ''

Fool's Gold The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

'' *2016: '' The Family Album'' with

*2018: ''Metaphora'' *2020: ''Entre nous'' *2022: ''Homemaker''

Awards and nominations

*2005

East Coast Music Award The East Coast Music Association is a non-profit association that hosts an annual awards ceremony based in Atlantic Canada for music appreciation on the East Coast of Canada. Its mission is to develop, advance and celebrate East Coast Canadian mus ...

s ** nominated ''Female Artist of the Year'' ** nominated ''Folk Recording of the Year'' for the album ''Oh Heart'' *2007

s ** won ''Best Album of the Year'' for the album ''For All Time'' ** won ''Female Artist of the Year'' ** nominated ''Folk Recording of the Year'' ** nominated ''Songwriter of the Year'' for the song "Don't Go Easy" *

2008 Juno Awards The Juno Awards of 2008 were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on the weekend ending 6 April 2008. These ceremonies honoured music industry achievements in Canada in the latter part of 2006 and in most of 2007. Country performer and multiple Juno ...

** nominated ''New Artist of the Year'' * 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards ** nominated ''Producer of the Year'' * 2017 Juno Awards ** won ''Contemporary Roots Album of the Year'' for the album ''The Family Album'' (shared with

)

References

External links

*
Jill Barber
at

Maple Music Cadence Recordings, formerly MapleMusic, is a Canadian independent record label founded by Andy Maize, Jeff Maize, Mike Alkier, Evan Hu, Lorique Mindel and Grant Dexter in 1999 and based in Toronto, Ontario. Other investors include Gary Slaig ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Jill 1980 births Living people Canadian women folk guitarists Canadian folk guitarists Canadian women pop singers Canadian women singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian indie pop musicians Canadian jazz guitarists Canadian women jazz singers French-language singers of Canada Queen's University at Kingston alumni Musicians from Halifax, Nova Scotia Musicians from Mississauga Musicians from Vancouver 21st-century Canadian guitarists 21st-century Canadian women singers 21st-century women guitarists