Molly Johnson

2023 Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award (Popular Music)

Singer–songwriter and humanitarian

Acclaimed as one of the best female jazz vocalists of our time, Molly Johnson has captivated audiences across Canada and Europe with her performances of jazz standards and original pieces. As the founding artistic director of Toronto’s Kensington Market Jazz Festival, she has helped hundreds of performers to flourish, and through her work as co-founder and producer of the Kumbaya Foundation, she has raised awareness of and funds for people living with HIV/AIDS. Always ready to speak out against racism and injustice, she has been actively involved with numerous charitable and service organizations.
 
Molly Johnson was born in 1959 in Toronto, to a white mother and a Black father. She began performing in the 1960s when she and her brother Clark were discovered by legendary impresario Ed Mirvish, and attended the National Ballet School before turning to songwriting. In the 1980s, she formed the rock band Alta Moda, later known as the Infidels (1990–1995), which won a Juno for Most Promising Group. She launched her jazz career after the dissolution of the Infidels.
 
Ms. Johnson has performed throughout North America and France, and alongside such renowned artists as Tom Cochrane, Blue Rodeo, Tom Jones, Jackie Richardson, Stéphane Grappelli and Peter Appleyard. She has also performed for such world icons as Nelson Mandela, Quincy Jones, and the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) and the late Princess of Wales.
 
In 1992, she established the Kumbaya Foundation in support of people living with HIV/AIDS. The associated Kumbaya Festival (1993–95) raised over $1 million and holds the record as Canada’s largest music fundraiser. In 2016, she launched the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, an artist-driven, volunteer-fuelled event that features some 500 Canadian musicians and attracts more than 5,000 enthusiastic fans. She is currently working on The Black History Project: Canada, an initiative to update Canada’s Black history curriculum.
 
“Philanthropy is in my DNA, as both my parents were activists,” she explains. “Whenever possible, however small your powers are, you use them for good.”
 
Molly Johnson is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Her 2008 album Lucky won the Juno for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.