By Will McGuirk
Ava Kay, multi-hyphenate BIPOC creator - singer, songwriter, film composer, and producer
“I wrote ’Go’ in 2017 as part of an record for a music library company, but it ended up having a life of its own after it was placed in a film.” Recorded with producer and fellow composer, Craig McConnell, Ava soon found herself with a song that was resonating widely with listeners. And while ‘Go’ reads like a highly personal breakup song, it’s far more than that, she explains: “It’s about leaving, but not just leaving because you’re fed up with something, but because taking the next step in your life is required. And, although it’s personal for me, it’s written from the perspective of a good friend writing to someone and saying, ‘you have to move on.’” It could be about any kind of parting, she adds.
As the youngest of four children born and raised in Toronto to parents who’d emigrated to Canada from Palestine, and of Armenian heritage, Ava was encouraged musically, but always with the caveat that she should be pragmatic about the future. “So, number one, get a good education and, number two, get a job, so I was like, ‘Well, that happened, that’s interesting but just I went on to university and then started working.”
For a time, Ava let music slide into the background but ultimately found her creative instincts leading her back towards performance; singing at open mic nights and meeting people who had the goal of making music for a living. Inspired, she began making trips to Nashville to strengthen her songwriting chops and soon found herself with a publishing deal, interest from a variety of producers and music industry professionals, and opportunities to write with artists in Northern Europe and the UK. “I just put myself out there and things just started to happen.”
After landing a residency for emerging film composers at the Canadian Film Centre, she took her first steps toward becoming a producer in her own right. Throughout her career, Ava has continued to hone her composition and production chops relentlessly, carving out a unique niche as a multi-talented, multi-lingual singer and composer and providing music for television networks including Disney, The Family Channel, CBC, Corus Entertainment, and The Hallmark Channel. Ava also received a nomination from LA’s prestigious Mark Awards for a previous album of compositions that were licensed to various projects and went on to collaborate with artists such as Grammy award-winning producer Afrojack, Britain’s Got Talent finalist and Eurovision star, Ryan O’Shaughnessy, as well as multi-platinum-selling Canadian talents Raghav and Tyler Shaw and popular K-Pop artists, After-School and Lead.
Additionally, Ava contributed the Gold-Certified song ‘Só Depende de Mim’ to an album by Portuguese chart-topper, Rita Guerra, and has composed soundtracks and original scores for critically acclaimed and award-winning films including The Door, Show & Tell, among others. In all, her compositions have amassed over 40 million streams across all platforms and is set to compose the anticipated upcoming feature movie, “Hysteria”.
