East Toronto’s Alejandra Avery Nunez nominated for JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

With a voice more soothing than a lullaby, and a profound appreciation for the generations that came before her – East Toronto singer, songwriter and bandleader Alejandra Avery Nunez is bringing jazz to the JUNO’s with her nomination for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.

“It feels incredible to be nominated for a JUNO award and I was truly in shock,” Nunez told Beach Metro Community News in a recent interview. “I had submitted and forgotten about it, and now I’m in a category with people I really look up to.”

The 55th Annual JUNO Awards (2026) will take place in Hamilton, Ontario, from March 26 to 29. The main awards broadcast will be held on Sunday, March 29, at the recently renovated TD Coliseum (formerly FirstOntario Centre).

Nunez’s award nominated EP album Under the Lemon Tree explores feelings of emotional isolation and the process of reflection following a first heartbreak, with the titular “Lemon Tree” signifying the bittersweet moments from a past love.

“I wrote these songs about a first heartbreak,” said Nunez. “I started writing about what’s it like to be alone with your thoughts and grieve a relationship, and it kind of blossomed into this theme of the lemon tree, where the lemon represents the bittersweet feelings of a relationship.”

Nunez’s rhythmic, crooning voice encapsulates the essence of 1930-40s jazz artist such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald – breathing life into a distinct sound from a bygone era.

“It’s a hybrid of a lot of different influences in my life. My music stems from everyone I listen to,” explained Nunez. “I love Ella Fitzgerald and I listened to a lot of jazz growing up but didn’t really cling to it until undergrad at Humber College.”

She began writing songs for the six-track album during the COVID-19 pandemic at age 19. However, it wasn’t until a school recording project five years later that the songs were released to the world.

“In my undergrad, I had the time to write more due to the pandemic, but also just with how the Humber program is designed, you’re encouraged to create your own works,” said Nunez.

“That’s how this whole EP album came to be. I was writing these songs, and then we have a recording project in our final year, so I brought all these songs in – but the bed tracks, the beginnings of these recordings all started at Humber in my final year,” said Nunez.

Although Humber College played a significant role in fine-tuning her sound as a jazz-vocalist, Nunez developed an early relationship with music and the performing arts at Selwyn Public School in East York, where she took part in after-school music programs and talent shows.

In the following years, Nunez attended Cosburn Middle School and Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts, delving deeper into the world of performance and music production.

“Although I was in the French immersion program at Cosburn Middle School, the school invested in theatre arts and I participated in the annual musical production,” said Nunez. “At Wexford Collegiate, I spent my formative years in the performing arts programs before heading to Humber College for my Jazz Vocal degree.”

In an email to Beach Metro Community News, Nunez also championed East Toronto’s Pegasus Dance Studios for igniting her passion and helping her transform into an artist with an intense desire to perform.

As many jazz artists, including Nunez, can attest, live performances – especially in the right venue – are the lifeblood of the genre.

“I’ve been playing venues since I was 13, and the places I play in Toronto are very special to me, especially stages like The Jazz Bistro and The Rex,” said Nunez.

Despite only recently breaking out as a signed industry artist, Nunez is definitely no stranger to the performing arts. She’s performed across the Greater Toronto Area at several venues and festivals, including the Toronto Beaches and Markham Jazz festivals, among many others.

“They’re places that make you feel like this art form, especially Jazz, but music in general, people are there to listen to the music, and there’s just something different about connecting with an audience in person and telling a story.”

But with her first recorded EP Under the Lemon Tree, Nunez focuses on establishing an audible connection with listeners while positioning herself among some of jazz’s greatest artists.

“If you’re in the thick of it and feeling the heaviness of the end of a relationship, I think that this album will comfort you,” said Nunez. “It’s also sonically something that brings old and new together in a beautiful way, in a time when people are looking for a familiarity and realness in music these days. I think it’s nice to hear something that sounds very real, and I just hope people can connect with it and feel something.”

For more information about Alejandra Avery Nunez, head to her website at https://www.aleaverynunez.com/