Katie Tupper

The West End Cultural Centre will continue to require that patrons wear facemasks and show proof of vaccination for all events in the venue. We will continue to evaluate this policy as circumstances evolve.

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Beneath the painted hues and infinite prairie skies of Saskatoon — a city in the heart of Canada — lies a soulful, creative spirit that proves there’s much more to the so-called ‘fly-over states’ than grassland and grain silos. Katie Tupper, a 24-year old neo-soul musician, embodies that spirit and is determined to show there’s an entire world of boundary-pushing, genre-defying artists at work within the often overlooked region.

Katie Tupper unveiled her “fantastic” and “beautiful” debut single “Live Inside” with Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and host in September 2021. On “Live Inside,” Tupper ruminates on notions of identity and what it means to let someone change your appearance, to surrender into your relationship and allow your partner to become a piece of who you look like everyday.

“How Can I Get Your Love?” Tupper’s second single, rising in the CBC Music Top 20 chart, currently at #7, deals in a blanketing mixture of Neo-soul and exquisite folk, seeming to speak for a region neglected all too often, displaying just how richly her music roots through the native meadows and grasslands (or as she refers to them here, “fields of butter”). It’s a song that at once speaks of all the possible partners we miss out on from sheer cluelessness, and ultimately centers around a single, great passion.

Then in January of 2022, Tupper released “Danny”, a song with swelling strings and twinkling keys exquisitely backing up an instantly catchy, syrupy drumline. Her voice soars over the track, telling a story of heartbreak and resentment, digging into that feeling of having so little left to lose that there’s hardly anything worth salvaging.

All songs are featured on her debut EP, Towards The End, coming out in February 2022 on Arts & Crafts.