Tanya Tagaq

MUSICIAN

most years, Tagaq sells out concert halls. This year, she packed libraries and bookstores. In September, the Polariswinning throat singer published her debut novel, Split Tooth, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in 1970s Nunavut. Every bit as entrancing and carnal as Tagaq’s music, it earned a spot on the Giller long list before it hit shelves and spawned a cross-country promo tour. She has long been the North’s emissary to Toronto, shaping how the city thinks about Canada’s Indigenous people by shattering musical conventions, waging Twitter wars about colonialism and unapologetically sporting seal skin. This past fall, however, when CBS aired a 60 Minutes special about her career, her homegrown fame morphed into international stardom. up next: Throat, a National Film Board documentary about Tagaq, will premiere in winter 2020.