BASIA BULAT

Basia Bulat (born April 13, 1984) (pron.: /?b??? bu??l?t/), is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is known for performing with an autoharp. Basia Bulat grew up in Etobicoke, Ontario where her mother was a music teacher who taught piano and guitar. She is an honorary member of Ontario's "Polonia" Polish community. She has said the radio at home was permanently tuned to an oldies station. “I don’t think I realised the radio had more than one station til I was 11 or 12,” Basia Bulat says. She attended the University of Western Ontario where she received a degree in English; she also took some classes with Olenka Krakus, also of Polish descent, of the band Olenka and the Autumn Lovers. While a student there, she was coaxed by friends into opening for Julie Doiron and soon gained a local following. She released an independent EP in 2005 and was subsequently signed to Rough Trade Records, which released her full-length debut album, Oh, My Darling in April 2007. The album was later released in Canada by Hayden's Hardwood Records. Her singles "Snakes and Ladders", "Little One" and "I Was a Daughter" have been playlisted on CBC Radio 3 while various tracks have received airplay on college radio in Canada and the United States. Her album Oh, My Darling made the short list for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize. Bulat has toured across Canada, the U.S., Europe; in June 2008, she ventured to Australia. She played the 2008 Dawson City Music Festival in the Yukon. Bulat cited the week she spent in the quiet and remote location as an inspiration for her songwriting. Her second album, Heart of My Own, was released by Rough Trade Records in the US and Canada on January 26, 2010. Along with Don Cherry she appeared on Hockey Night in Canada on December 10, 2011, during which she sang the Canadian national anthem for the Vancouver Canucks, who beat the Ottawa Senators 5:0, at the former Corel Centre.