Gabrielle Papillon

"She's a new kind of folk performer, almost a hybrid, a bit of an indie rock kid as well."

Bob Mersereau, CBC Radio (New Brunswick)

"Her voice is like honey and evokes comparisons to Feist and one of my personal favourites, Laura Veirs."

Pamela Fillion, Meet You At The Show

"Equipped with only an acoustic guitar, a dulcet voice, and a beautiful smile, Gabrielle Papillon stood alone atop the stage at Supermarket, awing the crowd across a short six-song set."

Anthony Marcusa, Lithium Magazine

Canadian singer-songwriter Gabrielle Papillon has been humming her own melodies from the time she could toddle, adding guitar chords as a teen. She sings stories real and imagined, strums chords both grand and delicate. Above all, Papillon loves the journey of a song and draws inspiration from guitar slinging troubadours such as Ani Difranco, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon.

In 2001 Papillon released her first album Songs for a Rainy Day. She then turned to academia for eight years, completing BA and MA degrees in English Literature and History, emerging with fresh songs spilling from her lips and a ripened musical sensibility. Papillon released The Wanderer in January 2010 and The Currency? of Poetry in October 2011, which hit a number of "Best Of" lists ?and landed in !Earshot's Top 20 National Chart for Folk/Roots/Blues in the month? of October 2011.

Papillon tours nationally twice a year and regionally throughout the year. She is currently promoting her new album Little Bug (September 2012). Little Bug's melodies "find a way of lodging themselves in your head and making a home there" (Tia Clarke, Spindle Magazine). Little Bug was recorded at Montreal's Treatment Room (Plants? and Animals, Stars, Snailhouse, Timber Timber) and produced by Daniel Ledwell (Jenn Grant's Honeymoon Punch and The Beautiful Wild). The album spent three months (August, September, October) charting on the national !Earshot charts, and was named one of the Top 12 Albums of 2012 on CBC Radio's Atlantic Airwaves. It is in rotation on CBC Radio 3 and gets regular play on CBC Radio 1 and CBC Radio 2. Little Bug has also been nominated for an ECMA for Folk Album of the Year.

Gabrielle has played at The Black Sheep Inn (Wakefield), The Ironwood Stage ?(Calgary), Communitea (Canmore), Haven Social Club (Edmonton), The Spatz Theatre and The Company House? (Halifax), Baba's Lounge (Charlottetown), The Rivoli (Toronto), Lydia's Pub (Saskatoon), The Media Club? and the Railway Club (Vancouver), Petit Campus, Divan Orange, and Casa Del Popolo (Montreal),? and the Living Room (New York City).

She has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Amelia Curran, Royal Wood, Roxanne Potvin, Del Barber, David Essig, Jon Brooks, Shari Ulrich, and Olenka and ?the Autumn Lovers.

She has showcased at OCFF, Halifax POP Explosion, POP Montreal, CMW, NXNE, Festival Diapason, Nova Scotia Music Week, and the International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis and Toronto. She has also performed at the In the Dead of Winter Festival in 2010, 2011, and 2013 and headlined at the All Folk'd Up Festival in Montmartre Saskatchewan in 2011 and 2012 and was a finalist in the Open Category for Ottawa Folk Festival's One Fret Less Award in 2010 and a regional finalist in the International category for the 2012 Mountain Stage Newsong competition.

"Gabrielle Papillon has a hook that clasps a handle on the heart– she simply breathes vocals. Gabrielle Papillon's approach to music is similar to the likes of Laura Marling [a personal favourite], particularly in the songwriting. Both artists exude a sultry sincerity that steers you on a journey through circumstance."

Katherine Kyte, Zouch Magazine

"Papillon's acoustic delivery is the sort that will stay with you, kicking around in your head long after each track ends. Her voice has the ability to saturate your audio intake in a personal way, whilst maintaining the tempo necessary to keep your feet tapping. She has a way of articulating that gives life to the edges of those letters most people skip over."

Josh Doyle, The Ontarion

"Gabrielle Papillon's voice is a major key haunt, a moment to bask in sadness, then move into the light."

Jon Thompson, The Kenora Daily Miner

Gabrielle Papillon

Listen to some of our latest songs:

Upcoming Dates: