Tanya Tagaq

Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq first drew notice in 2004 through partnerships with Björk, delivering an intense fusion of traditional Inuk throat singing and experimental pop. Over the next decade the Nunavut artist earned broad recognition via solo projects including the 2008 release Auk/Blood and the 2014 Polaris Prize-winning album Animism, where her eerie range of guttural and ethereal vocal tones met eclectic pop backdrops and modern orchestral writing. Tagaq, who also paints and has published fiction, has worked across hip-hop, classical, metal, folk, and Aboriginal circles with an array of unconventional acts. Her 2022 album Tongues set lyrics drawn from the 2018 novel Split Tooth.

Born in Cambridge Bay inside Canada’s sparsely populated northern territory of Nunavut, Tagaq has an Inuk mother and an Anglo father. During a difficult childhood and adolescence she endured sexual assaults, substance abuse, and a suicide attempt while attending high school in Yellowknife. She eventually left Nunavut and completed a fine arts degree at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Around that time her mother supplied a cassette of traditional throat singing; captivated by the otherworldly voices of the two women on the tape, Tagaq developed her own solo style and occasionally performed it informally for friends at parties. Although she had been pursuing painting, appearances at Canadian folk festivals brought her to the attention of Icelandic pop star Björk, who invited her to contribute to an upcoming album. Tagaq’s experimental throat singing meshed seamlessly with the largely a cappella character of Björk’s 2004 release Medúlla.

Björk returned the gesture in 2005 by appearing on Tagaq’s debut album Sinaa, a spare and haunting collection that secured three Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and a Juno nomination for Aboriginal Recording of the Year. Now established on the world-music stage, she pursued varied collaborations the following year, performing with the Kronos Quartet, fellow throat singer Okna Tsahan Zam, and Finnish yoiker Wimme. Tagaq’s second album, Auk/Blood in 2008, remained experimental and included work with Faith No More’s Mike Patton and Canadian rapper Buck 65, earning two further Juno nominations.

Her 2011 release Anuraaqtuq presented an entirely improvised live set recorded at the 2010 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. In 2012 she received a commission to compose theme music for the CBC drama Arctic Air. Issued in 2014, Tagaq’s third album Animism marked her most ambitious and commercially successful work to date. The sophisticated blend of experimental pop, modern composition, and throat singing carried stronger political themes than earlier releases and captured both a Juno Award for Aboriginal Album of the Year and the Polaris Prize, prevailing over mainstream artists such as Drake and Arcade Fire. Released on Toronto indie label Six Shooter Records, it also became her first U.S. release. The next year she resumed her long-standing partnership with the Kronos Quartet on the Derek Charke suite Tundra Songs and composed a piece for the ensemble’s Fifty for the Future project.

Tagaq’s fourth solo album Retribution arrived in 2016 and received widespread acclaim, returning her to the Polaris Prize longlist. In 2017 she appeared on Canadian folk legend Buffy Sainte-Marie’s single “You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind),” a track inspired by legendary dog sled racer George Attla. The following year she debuted as an author with Split Tooth, issued in late 2018 by Penguin/Random House as a hybrid of fiction and memoir. January 2019 brought the single “Snowblind” from the Toothsayer EP. Early 2022 saw the release of Tongues, a visceral and layered album produced by Saul Williams that incorporated lyrics drawn from her book Split Tooth.