Biography

A fixture of Toronto’s music community and a sought-after collaborator, Lydia Persaud embodies a blissfully soulful experience with her latest album ‘Moody31’. Marrying Jazz, R&B and Folk to create soul music in its most literal sense, Lydia’s daring range stretches words - subtly melismatic, smooth, slantly gospel - to their full emotional capacity. Moody31 comes described by its producer Scott McCannell as,”Roberta Flack sitting in with Bill Withers’ band at a folk festival”. 

Lydia has also had a colourful decade performing to crate diggers with The Soul Motivators (2011-2015), to folkies at festivals with The O’Pears (2011-2019), to rock nostalgics with Dwayne Gretzky (2017-present), to orchestral based Queer healing and liberation with The Queer Songbook Orchestra (2019-Present) and to unabashed LGBTQ+ reclamation of Country/Pop music with Shania Twink (2021-Present). Lydia has had the honour of opening shows for Jann Arden, Martha Wainwright, Diane Krall, toured as a support act for Canadian band STARS, and shared the stage with Lee Fields, Gordon Lightfoot, Justin Nozuka, among many others. “After ten years of playing music, I’m beginning to see a through-line throughout my experiences as I make music to connect with others. Moody31 celebrates the human experience in all its contradictions: new love alongside deep loss, craving solitude and connection and learning to love while falling in love with the self.”