Stratford’s Loreena McKennitt being inducted into Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame

Canadian singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt, a longtime Stratford resident whose prolific music career has spanned the best part of four decades, is being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

McKennitt, the first inductee the hall of fame has revealed from its class of 2023, will be honored next week on International Women’s Day at the Opera House in Toronto, officials announced Wednesday.

“I am deeply honored to be receiving this recognition,” McKennitt said. “For 25 years, this organization has shown a deep devotion to celebrating and promoting Canadian songwriters and this country’s rich, musical legacy. We have all been enriched by their work. I feel so privileged to have my name added to their list of distinguished Canadian songwriters.”

McKennitt’s induction will be one of the highlights of new event Women in Music Canada is launching to celebrate female creators “who have had outstanding success in their field,” according to organizers.

Afterwards, a permanent exhibit will be dedicated to McKennitt at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at the National Music Center in Calgary.

“Loreena is a musical enigma whose songs are seamlessly timeless yet current; rooted in tradition yet inventive,” said Stan Meissner, chairperson of the hall of fame’s board of directors. “She is a storyteller who can weave through eras, cultures, and transcend boundaries. Loreena has achieved global success on her own terms and has remained steadfast as an independent recording artist, which is both admirable and deserving of recognition.”

McKennitt moved from Winnipeg to Stratford in 1981, where she began her career as an actress, singer, and composer for the Southwestern Ontario city’s world-renowned festival of Shakespearean theatre.

She appeared in a pair of Stratford Festival productions – The Tempest (1982) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1984) – before launching an independent record label, Quinlan Road, and embarking on a solo career in music.

McKennitt first showcased her interest in Celtic music in 1985 on her debut recording, Elemental, an album she financed in part by busking in Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market. Inspired by the response, she continued to explore Celtic traditions, often weaving into skillful arrangements a variety of classic English and Irish poems.

“It’s been incredibly gratifying to realize that I’ve spent my life in the medium of music … and (was) able to use the history of the Celts as this vehicle of exploring not just history and geography, but other cultures and people,” McKennitt said.

McKennitt later broke through to mainstream Canadian audiences in the ’90s, winning two Juno Awards.

The first, Best Roots and Traditional Album of the Year, was for her 1992 record The Visit. McKennitt recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of that album with a tour in Ontario and the release of a special edition package including archival materials.

Her second Juno win for Best Roots Album came in 1995 for The Mask and Mirror, a record that explores the Celtic connections to Spanish and Arab music.

Through her career McKennitt has earned a total of 11 JUNO nominations, including three for Best Female Vocalist and one for Artist of the Year. The latter was won in 2007 by Canadian pop music icon Nelly Furtado.

Later, The Book of Secrets and its Juno-nominated single The Mummers’ Dance became McKennitt’s highest-charting effort, reaching No. 3 on Billboard and selling more than four-million copies worldwide, including more than two-million in the United States.

The album showcased McKennitt’s growth as a multi-instrumentalist. She combined traditional keyboards, harp, and acoustic and electric guitars with world-music instruments such as the bodhran, bouzouki, kanoun, oud, and tabla.

Her subsequent albums, An Ancient Muse and Troubadours on the Rhine, both earned Grammy nominations.

In total, McKennitt has sold more than 14-million records worldwide. Her albums have garnered critical international acclaim, and gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards in 15 countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Greece.

McKennitt has also composed music for films. Her first screen credits include the National Film Board of Canada’s Women and Spirituality series (1989 – 1993) and Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Léolo (1992). She later contributed both music and narration for Disney’s Santa Clause (1994) and Tinker Bell (2008).

McKennitt said her induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame came as a surprise.

“It was quite unexpected,” she said. “I thought it was bold of them, actually, because the nature of my music is not a top-40 thing most of the time. It’s an eclectic form of songwriting but all the same they felt that it was worthy of recognition and I feel very honoured.”

The recognition will be especially meaningful on International Women’s Day, McKennitt added, because it’s part of an effort to acknowledge the significant songwriting contributions of Canadian women.

“There’s no question as someone whose been in the music industry for 40 years and having managed my career, it has been and is still … male dominated,” McKennitt said.

McKennitt recently released her 16th album, Under a Winter’s Moon. The record includes seasonal performances captured in a historic Stratford church last winter. It features carols and readings by Indigenous actor Tom Jackson, Gemini award-winning actor Cedric Smith, and Ojibway artist and flautist Jeffrey “Red” George.

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