Emanuel (musician)

Emanuel Assefa, credited as Emanuel, is a Canadian R&B singer,^[1] whose debut EP Alt Therapy Session 1: Disillusion was a Juno Award nominee for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2021.^[2]

Assefa was born and raised in London, Ontario, the son of parents from Ethiopia who came to Canada as refugees in the 1970s.^[3]

His first single, "Need You", was released in April 2020, and was promoted in part with a music video compiled from the responses to actor Idris Elba's social media request for pictorial and video collages of the things that were helping people to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4]

Alt Therapy Session 1: Disillusion was released in June 2020,^[5] and was followed by Alt Therapy Session 2: Transformation in December^[6] His full-length debut album Alt Therapy, including songs from both of the prior EPs, was released in 2021 on Motown Records,^[7] and was a Juno Award nominee for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording at the Juno Awards of 2022.

His song "Black Woman", cowritten with Ryan Bakalarczyk, John Fellner and Kardinal Offishall, was a nominee for the 2021 SOCAN Songwriting Prize.^[8]