As a deluge of artists seek to be the next digital flash in the pan, Semiah is a breath of fresh mountain air. She’s as at home on stage – where she’s spent 20 of her 25 years – as she is chopping firewood or on an urban dancefloor in bejeweled glam. Regularly showered with encores & standing ovations for her live performances, Semiah moves effortlessly from intimate solo club shows to large soft seater theatres accompanied by dancers and musicians. Like a flirty dervish story-teller who can tear your heart out with side eye giggle, she has the uncanny ability to etch herself into the souls of swooning concert goers. But don’t let the playful cowgrrl edge fool you, she has more spiritual depth than most twice her age.
Based in Toronto Semiah hails from Six Nations. She’s a next generation Mohawk Alt Pop artist-producer who writes infectious songs about love, fear, resilience, and recklessness. Her quirky conversational lyrics marry with iconic melodies, electro punk grooves and ambient foley sonic architecture that gleams like skyscrapers and sparkles like celestial firestorms.
Debut single ‘Nothing Can Kill My Love for You’ garnered over 100,000 streams and tracks from debut EP ‘After The Night Ends’ continue to be featured on CBC radio programs such as Here & Now, AfterDark and Drive with Rich Terfry. New single release ‘Withdrawals’, is an electro pop punk love-gone-wrong song co-produced with Montreal collaborator Teleh0rn. Production features include traditional Haudenosaunee vocal techniques and innovative metallic elements that align with the accompanying video’s Katana sword fight choreography. Glittering pink characters step out of the snowy Alberta mountains like an Indigenous Charlie’s Angels with a warrior punk anime edge. Semiah produced, directed, choreographed, edited and created wardrobe for the video. Upcoming 2025 LVR GRL EP will lay bare all her heart’s secrets.
Recent performance highlights include B.C.’s Fusion Festival mainstage, International Indigenous Music Summit in Toronto, Outside Looking In Annual Showcase Concert Toronto, Canada Day in Surrey B.C. ImagiNATIVE film festival and an epic multi-media concert with dancers, custom designed visuals, electronic tracks and live band for 1300 screaming high school students at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre.
Semiah’s family motto “don’t half-ass it” has clearly set a high bar: her mom Santee Smith is a 2023 Order of Canada recipient for her work as an award-winning director/dancer appearing on major network TV and in film; her Dad George Leach is 2014 Aboriginal Music Juno award-winner and her Uncle Jay Silverheels was the renowned actor who played Tonto, the companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger (obviously roles were biased and limited at that time) and acted in over a dozen major American films alongside greats such as Humprey Bogart and James Stewart.
