Toddy

There are seemingly endless possibilities to self-expression, and Toddy is out there breaking new ground. With a winning combination of drag, standup comedy, opera, classical and pop music, Toddy (she/they) is redefining the very idea of pop stardom on their forthcoming debut album Always.

A Vancouver-based comedian and trained opera singer, Toddy first took their name from what they used to call their childhood teddy bear. Before they found national recognition by winning Season 1 of OutTV’s Call Me Mother, Toddy had been performing professionally since they were nine: singing in the Children’s Chorus and operas in Calgary; studying opera at McGill University in Montreal, and eventually segueing into the worlds of comedy and drag.

Fascinated with how “rock, opera, and pop music can be intertwined,” Toddy repurposes their classical education to create a brilliant and engaging collection of tracks on Always, which weaves through a range of high-energy, glammy influences: Kylie Minogue, Christine And The Queens, KISS, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Lily Allen, and Adele.

Recording all 10 Always tracks at 604 Studios in Vancouver with producers Louise Burns and Kevvy Maher (Fake Shark), Toddy draws on their formative time in Vancouver’s art, comedy, and drag scene(s). And yet, Always is a singular organism created for people of every age and every lived experience. “The album lives in a world, but it’s incredibly multi-genre’d,” Toddy says. “No matter which world we dip into, this is just always Toddy.”