Strumming with the Queen

Lindsay Ell, a 35-year-old singer-songwriter, shares her exhilarating experience of working and touring with Shania Twain, the Queen of Country Pop. Performing with the hit-maker of “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” is nothing short of “wild,” she confesses.

Ell is quick to dispel the old adage, “never meet your heroes.” In her experience, Twain is as wonderful off-stage as she is on it. She admires how Twain empowers everyone in her crew and band, constantly challenging them to improve. “It has just been so lovely getting to see how Shania works and really see how she empowers everybody in her crew and her band and she lifts us all up and challenges us to be better and so it has been such a beautiful experience.”

Ell also shares her awe-inspiring experience of playing at the Glastonbury festival, where Twain played the legends slot. The energy at Glasto, she says, is unparalleled. “Playing Glastonbury was like an out of body experience,” she enthuses. “I have played for some big crowds before but there is an energy at Glasto that is just hard to find anywhere else. It was so amazing to feel that energy and be a part of it.”

Despite some sound issues at the festival, Ell maintains that the show must go on. She admires how pros like Shania handle such situations, "The show must go on, you carry through.”

On her own front, Ell has been busy writing new music since the release of her fifth studio album, Heart Theory, four years ago. She teases, “I’ve been a busy little bee writing and I’m getting ready to release the first set of songs. I haven’t released music in a while so I’m so excited about that."

Ell is also set to receive the Canadian Country Music Association’s 2024 Gary Slaight Music Humanitarian Award for her work with The Make You Movement fund, a charity she founded in 2020. The award, she says, “means the world” to her.