Kellylee Evans

Struck by lightning. Not the name of one of this up-and-coming jazz vocalist’s songs, but rather the fate that befell her this summer as she doing the washing up in her Ottawa home. Kellylee Evans, who was touching a wet sink at the time, believes the bolt may have struck the home’s plumbing and snaked its way through the pipes. The experience left her with breathing difficulties – the bane of any singer’s life – but she’s since made a more or less full recovery, and is back work both onstage and in the studio. Ever since she turned heads at the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, Evans has been garnering accolades for her smooth blend of jazz, soul and hip hop, displayed on such records as ‘Nina’ (her 2010 tribute to Nina Simone). A warmer, less abstract Erykah Badu, she’s a performer to keep an ear on.