Brampton’s Falana wins SOCAN Black Canadian Music Award

By

Published March 17, 2022 at 10:16 am

Brampton-born and raised recording artist Falana is one of five Canadian artists to win the 2022 SOCAN Foundation SiriusXM Black Canadian Music Awards.

After moving to Toronto to pursue music, Falana balanced day jobs with relentless gigging at night. That hard work has paid off not only with the success of her sophomore EP Rising, but she has also been featured in Vogue, Complex, Earmilk and The New Yorker.

She even had a cameo in the popular Netflix distributed Nigerian rom-com Isoken.

Falana now splits her time between London, Lagos and her hometown of Brampton. The artist says her upbringing was soundtracked by a diverse music selection, which helped shape her genre-defying blend of afrobeats, R&B soul and pop.

Falana’s Rising EP is themed around women’s empowerment, with songs and lyrics aimed at disrupting the often-one-dimensional view of women that is constantly portrayed.

“From conversations I have with friends struggling with anxiety, women specifically — there’s been a whole wave of Black female artists speaking up about discrimination in the industry, so I think having that kind of message (being) repetitive and in the space is really important,” Falana said of Rising in an interview with Complex.

The SOCAN Foundation Black Canadian Music Awards was created in partnership with Sirius XM Canada Inc. The award celebrates extraordinary Canadian Black music creators with awards valued at up to $5,000 per artist.

All submissions are reviewed by a jury composed of Black artists and leaders in the Canadian music industry.

Other winners of the 2022 awards included Toronto-raised R&B artist IDMAN, Ottawa-born vocalist, songwriter and producer Maurice Moore, and Nigerian-Canadian musician Shopé.

INsauga's Editorial Standards and Policies