Elisapie is an Inuk musician, broadcaster, documentary filmmaker and activist from Canada. She is also known as Elisapie Isaac and has the Inuktitut syllabics name ᐃᓕᓴᐱ. Her work spans folk and pop, and she performs in English, French and Inuktitut.

Early life and background

Elisapie grows up in Salluit, Nunavik, Quebec, and later moves to Montreal in 1999 to study communication with the aim of becoming a journalist. She is born in 1977 in Moose Factory, Canada. Her family background includes an Inuk mother and a father from Newfoundland.

Music career

She first performs at the age of twelve with the Salluit band Sugluk. In the early 2000s, she works with instrumentalist Alain Auger in the project Taima, an Inuktitut name meaning “that’s all” or “it is done”. The project releases one album, Taima, which wins the Juno Award for Aboriginal Recording of the Year in 2005.

In 2006, she writes lyrics for songs composed by Bruno Coulais for the film The White Planet. Her first solo album, There Will Be Stars, is released by Pheromone Recordings in 2010. Her second solo album, Travelling Love, appears under the name Elisapie and continues her use of English, French and Inuktitut.

Her 2019 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl is nominated for the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year and is shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. She also receives a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Far Away”, which appears in the film The Legend of Sarila.

Media work and film

Alongside music, Elisapie has extensive experience in media production. She describes communication and radio as an important outlet for her creative work and as something that broadens her perspective beyond the role of performer. In 2021, she is announced for her first acting role in C.S. Roy’s augmented reality film V F C.

Awards and recognition

Elisapie’s career includes a Juno Award win with Taima, a later Juno nomination for The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, and a Canadian Screen Award nomination for “Far Away”. During the Juno Awards, she is at one point mistakenly nominated as Breakthrough Artist of the Year before the nomination is withdrawn after her earlier Juno win is recognised.