It was quite a night at the recent HOZIER gig at Cardiff Castle, the weather was perfect, the setting incredible, and the music off the scale good. Opening proceedings was special guest VICTORIA CANAL. She’s playing all dates on the tour including a huge outdoor gig at London’s Alexandra Palace Park.
The shows follows Victoria’s recent Ivor Novello Rising Star win, with the award celebrating the craft of songwriters, composers and craters. Past Rising Star winners and nominees include Mysie, Griff, Willow Kayne, Rachel Chinouriri, Naomi Kimpenu and Holly Humbertstone, and Victoria is following in their footsteps as a breakout artist primed for greatness.
After her set at the Castle we caught up with Victoria to chat about her music, life during and after lockdown and of course had to start with her performance in front of a 10,000 strong Cardiff crowd.
On receiving her recent Ivor Novello Rising Star award the judges complimented the singer-songwriter’s “powerful songwriting and compelling sound”, while Victoria dedicated her award to past teachers and mentors. Pertaining to her limb difference she also added…..
“I really could have used seeing someone like me on stage growing up and I never did so it’s truly an honour to think that someone else who feels different out there knows that it’s possible.”
Victoria Canal also recently shared two new singles, “Shape” and “She Walks In” via Parlophone Records, Her first new music since the release of 2022’s ‘Elegy’ EP, “Shape” was premiered with Clara Amfo on BBC Radio 1. With the two tracks being the first the artist has shared on the themes of body image and body dysmorphia, “Shape” and “She Walks In” will feature on a new EP, due for release this summer.
Talking about She Walks In, Victoria said…..
“The idea of this song stems from a beautiful girl turning heads when she walks into a room. I have the experience of people staring at me, but it’s because of my limb difference.
There’s an inherent yearning for people to look at me the way that they look at her.”
Last year’s ‘Elegy’ delicately dealt with themes of grief and death, and featured the single “Swan Song”, which Chris Martin of Coldplay hailed as “one of the best songs ever written”. Victoria also performed “Swan Song” on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’, appearing alongside the likes of Self Esteem and The 1975.
Victoria said…….
“I was like Chris Martin’s biggest fan way before this. I’ve grown up with Coldplay and every time I’ve sat down at my piano over the last ten years, I’ve always asked myself: What would Chris Martin do?!’”
Chris became Victoria’s mentor and encouraged her to be more open and honest in her songwriting or, as she puts it…..
“encouraging me to be me.”
That performance really was something else, as you can see below……
24 year-old singer, songwriter, producer and activist Victoria Canal makes soul-stirring, emotive pop music. Born in Munich, Spanish-American Canal says her international upbringing fostered her love for a nomadic life in music. A proud “third culture kid”, she has lived everywhere from Shanghai, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London and Dubai to Atlanta, New York and Fort Worth, and is proud of her identity as a queer, disabled, mixed-heritage woman, which fuels much of her activism.
Victoria made her television acting debut recently in acclaimed Apple TV+ anthology series ‘Little America’, starring in the season’s moving episode “The Indoor Arm” as a Spanish-speaking Salvadorian refugee in the ‘80s, who comes to America to live with her sister. She also wrote “Bring It On:, the theme song for Apple TV+ series ‘Best Foot Forward”, based on the book by Paralympic skier Josh Sundquist.
Make sure you catch VICTORIA CANAL perform her guest spot on the current HOZIER tour. If you’ve not seen her before, she really is next level good.
You can see what Victoria is up to on her site – HERE.
