Rasp-filled, sensually soulful Lexi Strate has set a dizzying pace over the last 2 years. Her debut EP “WAVES” featured 7 songs that introduced her smoky style of indie pop. The EP won the WCMA award for “Pop Artist Of The Year”, and was also Canadian Beats’ “EP Of The Year”. Her video for “Diamond Eyes” (a single with nearly 1,000,000 streams) was shot by buzz director Travis Nesbitt (Dan Davidson, Brett Kissel, USS, Owls By Nature, Social Code) and experienced moderate rotation on Much Music.
Throughout her success in 2016, her reach began to extend beyond the digital world. She began playing large shows opening for label artists like Virginia To Vegas, Coleman Hell, The Trews (who asked Lexi to join them onstage across Southern Alberta to perform Serena Ryder’s parts on “In The Morning”), The Sheepdogs, The Strumbellas and many more. She was also invited to participate in several pro-level writing camps in Toronto, Vancouver, and throughout Western Canada with some of today’s top producers.
While in many ways, Lexi is a new artist, she began her journey coming up in the industry years ago. She was the winner of the Virgin Radio Star Competition in 2012, which gave her the opportunity to travel west and record her first single, “Turning Point” in Vancouver with chart-topping songwriter Mike James (Kelly Rowland, Kreesha Turner, Shiloh). The song debuted on Edmonton’s 104.9 Virgin Radio - winning Astral Media's Breakthrough Artist within only a month - and began receiving national airplay across Canada. As she built momentum, Lexi’s next track “Unstoppable” was featured on CW’s TV series “Beauty & The Beast”, and by January 2013, she had released her next single, "All For You" into the radio world. A collaboration between songwriters Mike James, Stef Lang (Mr. Immature), and Davey Badiuk (Dragonette), Lexi again went on to receive radio play across Canada and the song was featured in the hit TV Sci-Fi series “Continuum”.
After plugging into the Vancouver music scene, Lexi began honing her songwriting skills under the mentorship of world-class producer Jeff Dawson (Danial Powter, Kelly Rowland, State of Shock, The Dudes) and top #10 Canadian recording artist Laurell (Can’t Stop Falling, Unbreakable). Toting her favourite albums with her (Dallas Green, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Adele, Jan Arden and Maroon 5) and pages of hand-written notes, Lexi fearlessly focused every songwriting session towards her artistic discovery.
In 2014, Lexi won Bell Media's FUTURE STAR for May, Her single, “Chances”, went top 40 in Canada. This career milestone drew the attention of Indie label and production team Hands Up! Music, who quickly jumped on board and completed Lexi’s first EP featuring the underground success “Diamond Eyes”.
A face as stunning as her voice is sultry, Lexi’s sugar and smoke combination captivate audience after audience. With an action packed 2017 helping Lexi define her artistic direction and personality, she is poised to make her mark on the Canadian music scene with her sophomore releases this fall.