Shakura S’Aida paid her dues before most people knew her name — backing Patti LaBelle on stages she was not yet ready to headline, lending her voice to jazz sessions alongside Jimmy Smith and Ruth Brown, earning every room she walked into. What those years gave her is not nostalgia. It’s authority. On Friday, February 5, she brings that authority to Kingston Grand Theatre.
About the Show
This evening flows directly from Hold on to Love, her fourth studio album and the first in a decade, a record with a layered history that shows in the music. Some material traces back to 2010, unreleased until now; other tracks were written while S’Aida lived in Martinique during the pandemic, shaping lyrics remotely with co-producer Donna Grantis, who spent years touring and recording with Prince. Keb’ Mo’ co-wrote and produced one track. Lee Oskar plays harmonica on another. Eric Gales appears on guitar. The album moves across blues, jazz, and soul without losing its footing in any of them.
Blues Blast Magazine described her voice as “constantly smooth and enticing.” The 2023 Juno Awards nominated Hold on to Love for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year; Folk Music Ontario gave it Album of the Year that same cycle. In 2024, the SOCAN Foundation named S’Aida a recipient of the ‘Her Music’ Award. She is a Maple Blues Award winner for Female Vocalist of the Year and a three-time Juno nominee across her career. At the 2008 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, competing against more than 100 bands from over 20 countries, she finished first runner-up.
Brooklyn-born, Swiss-raised, and embedded in Toronto’s music community for more than four decades, S’Aida has performed across 32 countries. She curates and produces concerts through her Shakura S’Aida Presents platform, runs an annual food drive that has raised donations for more than 14,000 meals, and serves on the boards of the Toronto Jazz Festival and Folk Canada. She is also the creator and star of The Nina Project, a four-woman Nina Simone tribute she wrote and performs. That project says something about where she places herself in the tradition, not alongside the canon but working inside it.
Venue & Logistics
Kingston Grand Theatre’s Rosen Auditorium gives this performance the focused staging it warrants. The show, presented by Grand OnStage, begins at 7:30 p.m. More concerts in the north-country region.
Tickets
Tickets are $19.50–$29.50 + HST and fees. Buy tickets