County’s Emily Fennell ‘Miss Emily’ nominated for Juno Award

UPDATE May 15: Colin James was selected the winner with his album Open Road.

– Bernard Clark photo

Prince Edward County’s Emily Fennell has been nominated for a Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year for her ‘LIVE at the Isabel’.

Fennell, known as Miss Emily, now living in her adopted hometown of Kingston, shares the category nomination with performers Colin James, Colin Linden, Steve Marriner and Sue Foley.

“Today marks the 18th anniversary of me being a full-time musician,” she told fans of her Facebook page. “Today I got to call my daughter at school and tell her I’m nominated for a Juno. Dreams come true, folks. You just have to stick with it. (I’m going to go bawl my eyes out for a few hours now. Lol).”

This is her first Juno nomination.

In 2020 she won three Maple Blues Awards that celebrate outstanding achievement in Canadian blues music. Her music video ‘Hold Back the River’, shot inside the now closed Kingston Penitentiary, won a Sapphire Video Award along with Top Female Vocalist and New Artist of the Year.

Her career began as a pre-teen in Prince Edward County, performing a local fairs, competitions and events. For the past 18 years she has toured Canada and internationally and her ‘In Between’ album features The Tragically Hip’s Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair.

Her new single ‘The Medicine’ just released, she says was “written after a family reached out to me in 2017 who had lost their daughter to a fentanyl overdose while she was on a treatment waitlist.”

The Juno Awards are to be presented May 15 in Toronto.

“Massive thanks and love to every incredible person involved in the making of this album. It takes a village to raise a ME,” she added.

• A live performance of ‘My Friend’ from the sold-out, two night album release party for “In Between” at Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston.