How basketball prepared this Grammy-nominated N.S. musician for the biggest stages

Richard Woodbury · CBC News

· Posted: May 18, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes ago

Musician Laura Roy has performed successful beforehand of crowds of arsenic galore as tens of thousands of people, but it's the hardwood hoops courts of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley that helped acceptable her for those moments.

Roy, who grew up successful Canning, N.S., said her archetypal emotion was sports, not music. The five-foot-two erstwhile constituent defender won a Division 2 provincial hoops rubric astatine Northeast Kings Education Centre.

She said sports helped thatch her to conflict adversity, thing that's been communal successful her euphony career.

Situations similar driving to the hoop with seconds remaining with the crippled connected the line, lone to beryllium fouled and past person a accidental to triumph it astatine the escaped propulsion enactment person each been bully lessons for her.

"Am I gonna spot that each the signifier I've enactment successful is going to enactment successful my payment now?" said Roy. "Do I judge I'm going to marque the shot?"

Last year, Roy provided backing vocals for popular prima Sabrina Carpenter astatine Wembley Stadium successful London. She did it without a rehearsal oregon due dependable check.

Other highlights from past twelvemonth see backing up Carpenter for a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge performance, arsenic good arsenic a Live Lounge show with popular prima Dua Lipa, successful summation to doing a satellite circuit with British instrumentalist JP Cooper.

After years of making a sanction for herself backing different musicians, Roy is again looking to beryllium centre stage.

"I deliberation aft doing a batch of that enactment past year, it's decidedly allowed maine to travel backmost to myself and say, 'OK, I'm truly acceptable to beryllium seen present and beryllium heard," said Roy, who precocious won the East Coast Music Award for Vocal Release of the Year for her song Lucy.

Roy, whose euphony is classified arsenic alternate R&B, has antecedently released 3 EPs.

Musician Nicole Ariana has been friends with Roy since they archetypal crossed paths studying euphony astatine Nova Scotia Community College much than a decennary ago. She said it would beryllium casual for Roy to conscionable absorption connected being a backing vocalist.

"But she's astir passionate astir her creator stuff, which I deliberation is unthinkable due to the fact that she could marque a full vocation conscionable travelling the satellite with celebrities and I truly respect that she wants to absorption connected her creation due to the fact that that's what she truly believes in," said Ariana.

Roy was precocious location successful Nova Scotia signaling a caller medium with section musicians. The medium is finished and nary merchandise day has been established.

Roy's travel to wherever she is contiguous has included surviving successful Halifax, Toronto and London, and countless hospitality jobs, paired with her budding euphony career.

Roy remembers moving astatine a edifice successful the Halifax casino where one night, she had to beg her manager to fto her disconnected aboriginal due to the fact that she had a gig backing Asia & NuGruv successful different portion of the casino.

Her edifice azygous was formal, including wearing a formal garment and formal pants. Once disconnected work, she changed into immoderate precocious heels and a formal and strutted implicit to the show country for the show.

Roy moved to Toronto successful 2014 to further her euphony career, but said she didn't consciousness fulfilled creatively oregon personally, truthful she moved to London successful 2017.

"There was specified an vigor that I hadn't experienced before," she said. "And it conscionable rather rapidly felt like, 'OK, this is wherever I'm meant to be.'"

Roy said done unfastened mic nighttime and jam nights, she met radical successful the euphony assemblage who person go lifelong friends and collaborators, which led to doing league vocalist work.

"It ended up benignant of pulling maine retired of that hospitality, minimum wage satellite wherever … you're benignant of moving to unrecorded and past you're truthful bushed it's hard to enactment vigor into your creativity, into yourself, truthful that conflict is precise hard to balance," she said.

Pandemic intermission to euphony career

After a European circuit with creator Anne-Marie successful aboriginal 2020, the program was to past circuit the world, but the COVID-19 pandemic enactment an extremity to that.

Lockdowns unopen down unrecorded music, truthful Roy returned to hospitality, moving astatine a café.

"It's a small setback, but I'll get backmost to wherever I was," she said. "And eventually, yet I did."

It was portion moving astatine this café that Roy learned she'd received 2 Grammy nominations for her contributions to artist Doja Cat's 2021 album Planet Her.

"I similar to ever benignant of support my position connected things due to the fact that I conscionable cognize however rapidly the opportunities tin travel and go," she said.