Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Canadian hero, a musical trailblazer and a tireless advocate for human rights and the environment. She is a legendary, unique force in the music industry.
On Thursday and Friday, Sept. 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m., she performs at Sidney’s Mary Winspear Centre.
The Cree singer-songwriter will perform songs from her award-winning 2015 album, Power in the Blood and her 2017 follow-up, Medicine Songs. That album includes renditions of Sainte-Marie’s earlier hits such as “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” “Starwalker,” “Now that the Buffalo’s Gone” and her new collaboration with Tanya Tagaq, “You Got To Run.”
Since It’s My Way, Sainte-Marie’s 1964 recording debut, she has carved a long, singular career of powerful songs and live performances. In 1969 she recorded one of the first electronic vocal albums and in 1982 she won an Oscar for co-writing the end theme song “Up Where We Belong” from the film Officer and a Gentleman. She remains the only Indigenous woman to win an Academy Award.
Sainte-Marie was a cast member on Sesame Street for five years and the first woman to breastfeed on national television. She was blacklisted in the U.S. for years for her outspoken political views, but continued to have her songs recorded by Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Donovan, Jennifer Warnes, Joe Cocker and many others.
Her song “Universal Soldier” remains the definitive anti-war anthem. She’ll probably sing it again at her local show in Sidney.
For tickets and more information, visit marywinspear.ca or contact the box office at 250-656-0275.
– Joseph Blake
editor@mondaymag.com
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