Hanorah

Searching. Playfulness. Rediscovery of the once known. These thoughts permeate through Hanorah’s creative impulse. The multidisciplinary Canadian artist, chiefly known for her powerful emotive voice, transforms the old into the new as she charts waters at once familiar and unknown. Weaving influences from RnB, rock, and shoegaze, she’s ready to redefine what soul music can be, exploring new sonic landscapes as she creates something both fresh and timeless.

Her new EP, Closer Than Hell, is a collection born from that very tension—between desire and uncertainty, between the things you don’t know and the parts of yourself you’re afraid to face. The theme of searching threads through each song, a quiet but persistent pull toward something elusive, something just out of reach. You hear it in the aching vulnerability of her lyrics, the way her voice rises and falls as if chasing after a feeling that might only exist for a fleeting second, before slipping away. But there’s play in it too. The kind of play where the rules aren’t clear, where you’re not entirely sure what is at stake. Her EP is about the delicate, messy dance between letting go and holding on—about being lost but also willing to find the joy in the search.

Hanorah, however, is no stranger to creative risk. After being scouted while performing at a festival, she landed her debut lead role in a feature horror film that is now set to premiere in 2025. Leaps of faith are not a new trend either for the seasoned vocalist. Following an early record deal, Hanorah released her debut EP ‘For The Good Guys And The Bad Guys’ in 2019. The record amassed over a million streams, won several awards, and helped her tour extensively through Canada and the U.S.. In 2022, she released her debut album ‘Perennial’ through Ensoul records. It was featured on radio stations across Canada and received numerous spots on Spotify editorial playlists. Exclaim! Magazine listed the LP as a ‘staff pick’ for the year and she performed tracks on the hit Québec TV show Belle et Bum. After releasing a follow-up ep ‘Time Waits For no Woman’ in 2023, she closed the Montréal Jazz Festival in front of 40,000 people, toured the U.K. and the U.S. appearing in Liverpool Soundcity, Focus Wales, and SXSW. The Montréal Guardian described the songs “as a poignant rebuttal to the profit-oriented forces that commodify female artists, reducing their worth to their youth […] the EP stands as a powerful testament to Hanorah’s unwavering resilience and musical prowess.”