Kellie Loder

Kellie Loder (born 1988) is an independent singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who plays drums, guitar and piano. She has released two Contemporary Christian albums: The Way in 2009 and Imperfections & Directions in 2010. With a voice that St. John's-based newspaper The Telegram has described as "powerful yet serene and soulful", she has won critical recognition at the annual MusicNL awards in Newfoundland, as well as the Juno Awards, Canada's top music prizes. Having written her first song at age 16 about a cousin who died in a traffic accident, Loder was studying nursing at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland when she released The Way in August 2009. Later that year, she won a talent-search contest hosted by YC Newfoundland, a Christian youth conference. As part of the award, Loder was given time with music industry and production professionals who helped her with Imperfections & Directions, which was released at the 2010 YC Newfoundland. Loder's nursing studies hampered her ability to showcase Imperfections & Directions by touring. Loder was nominated as Female Artist of the Year at the 2010 MusicNL awards, and then as Gospel Artist of the Year in 2011. Imperfections & Directions was nominated as Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year at the 2012 Juno Awards. Loder's music career is unusual in that she chose to begin it in Contemporary Christian music (CCM); most young musicians choose music genres such as country and pop, which are generally considered more likely to bring commercial success. Loder has asserted that she chose CCM because it gives purpose to her music. In April 2012, she had not decided whether she would focus on medicine or music, but by April 2013, she had made music her focus.