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Here Is the Shortlist for the Billboard Canada Female Composer of the Year Award
The winner will be announced at Billboard Canada Women In Music 2026, creating a platform to celebrate their impact alongside the inspiring artists, executives and leaders throughout the industry, including major superstars like Global Woman of the Year Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, Summer Walker, Tia Wood, Chxrry and more.
Tickets are available here.
Here are this year's shortlisters:
Lesley Barber
Lesley Barber has a long and well-respected legacy as one of the most decorated composers in Canadian film and television. She's scored major projects including Mansfield Park and the Oscar-winning Manchester By The Sea (which will be performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as part of its 2027 season), and continues her prolific pace today.
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Over the last year, she was Oscar-shortlisted and Grammy nominated for the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless, a collaboration with the legendary songwriter, and has also worked with Mindy Kaling for the Hulu series Four Weddings and a Funeral, on Billy Night starring Al Pacino, and with producer Jason Reitman on Gail, a film about an Our Lady Peace superfan that premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Beyond her work on screen, Barber is the first Canadian woman to serve as Governor Chair of the Academy of Motion Pictures Music Branch, serves on the SOCAN and Screen Composers Guild of Canada board of directors and also advocates for women and non-binary composers through her work with the Alliance of Women Film Composers and the Society of Composers & Lyricists.
Alexandra Petkovski
Also known under her artist name FJØRA, Alex Petkovski has built a career that has traversed between dark pop and screen composition, and now she's bringing them together in a style she describes as "cinematronic."
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She's done a wide variety of work, for Arcane's video game Deathloop (including remixes and covers by Steve Aoki, Future and Madison Beer), reimagined 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?" with the legendary Linda Perry for the horror series Welcome to Blumhouse and worked on major projects like American Horror Story. This year, You're Killing Me brought both of her worlds together as she both composed the score and created original songs as FJØRA, and then did it again for the feature Into The Deep Blue. She'll continue that approach on the upcoming sci-fi thriller Habitable starring Kate Mara.
She's used her platform to build space for women and gender-diverse composers at festivals like TIFF and NXNE as well as executive leadership for the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.
Suad Bushnaq
Suad Bushnaq created the unforgettable score to Yunan, a film about an exiled Syrian author who travels to a remote island in the North Sea to contemplate a drastic decision. Recorded in Montreal with a Canadian string orchestra and choir directed by Bushnaq, it's been a breakthrough for the Jordanian-Canadian composer, who has scored more than 41 films over her career.
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She made history this year by becoming the first woman composer of Arab descent to become a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (which administers the Oscars), earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for best original score and won a Critics Award for Arab Cinema at Cannes Film Festival.
Bushnaq has also recently scored Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough on Netflix, the French Canadian Hotel Beyrouth TV series and the Arabic series Al Batal (The Hero).
Steph Copeland
Steph Copeland has worked as an artist and composer with a diverse list of credits in the last couple of years, including the title theme for Property Brothers:Under Pressure, Vietnamese film Bay Tien (The Fatal Dealz) and scores for upcoming films It Feeds, Scratch House, Death of a Yellow Bird, and even explored granular synths for the resort wear campaign for the North Face clothing brand.
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Working in a wide-ranging set of projects, Copeland is also working with Peter Chapman and Michelle Osis (another shortlister) on an album recording project under the name LRLR.
Michelle Osis
Michelle Osis is making her second shortlist for a Billboard Canada/SOCAN award after being recognized on the Screen Composer of the Year shortlist at Billboard Canada Power Players 2025. A frequent collaborator of that award's winner Mark Korven, Osis received a Canadian Screen Music Award nomination for their work together on the MGM+ series Billy the Kid after winning one the previous year for her work on Murder on the Inca Trail.
With Korven, she's begun scoring her first feature film set for release next year and is collaborating with rock legend Slash on the score for the upcoming documentary OWEN about late Canadian pro wrestling legend Owen Hart, who died in a tragic fall at a wrestling event in 1999. She's also a tutor at the Screen Composers Guild of Canada's horror scoring workshop.
Marie-Hélène Delorme
Marie-Hélène Delorme, also known for her artist work as FOXTROTT, is a producer, vocalist and composer based in Montreal. In addition to her acclaimed albums, she's best known for composing the atmospheric and pulse-raising score for Netflix thriller Wayward, created by Canadian comedian Mae Martin.
Delorme has a background in scriptwriting and sound engineering, as well as her own music, which has given her a multi-dimensional vision that lends itself to unforgettable screen composition work.
The winner of the Billboard Canada Female Composer of the Year Award will be announced at Billboard Canada Women In Music on Nov. 24 at Rebel in Toronto. Tickets are available here.
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