Spotlight On: VICTORIA CANAL
ABOUT this week’s guest:
Victoria Canal photo by Martina Matencio
Spanish-American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Canal was born in Munich to Spanish and American parents, and mostly grew up in Madrid, Spain. But her father’s work took their family around the world, and before she was even in her mid-teens, she’d lived in cities like Shanghai, Tokyo and Dubai. As we’ll hear today, it was her grandmother, a classical piano teacher, who saw Victoria's musical talent from a young age, and as a child she began studying piano and singing. Victoria was born without her right forearm and hand due to amniotic band syndrome - a rare congenital condition caused by strands of the amniotic sac that separate and entangle digits, limbs, or other parts of the fetus. As Victoria tells it, at first she played the piano with only her left hand, but with her mother’s encouragement, soon began to play using her short right arm, becoming a virtuosic player despite her disability. While studying at Berklee College of Music's summer performance program, and jazz conservatory in Barcelona, Victoria developed her skills and talent as a songwriter and guitarist, and in 2015 she recorded her 2016 debut EP Into the Pull. In 2018 Michael Franti discovered Victoria on Instagram and invited her to record a song with him, and then go out on tour in 2019. Then, a couple years later, in another Instagram fairytale moment, a turning point came when Chris Martin heard her songs online and got in touch, offering support. Victoria signed with Parlophone Records after he introduced her to the label, and she began releasing music with Parlophone in 2022 including her EP Elegy. The following year, Victoria was invited to join Hozier for some opening dates on his Unreal Unearth tour, put out the EP Well Well, and soon after was honored with the 2023 Ivor Novello Rising Star Award followed by a second Ivor Novello Award in 2024 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Her breakthrough year of success last year culminated with an unforgettable appearance on stage with Coldplay at Glastonbury. And now, a decade since self-releasing her debut EP, Victoria Canal has just released her full length debut album called Slowly It Dawns.