“My musical passion is turning pain into beauty. I use music to call people in and speak truth by making the unpalatable palatable by nestling it in music… this can spark a fire of awareness and bring about social change.” – D.M. Lafortune

Birdsong Foundation announces the release of a powerful new song from Indigenous artist D.M. Lafortune titled “How Many Times”. She is an unshakable voice, particularly for those people who live with trauma.

When you Google her name, you will find her harrowing, yet transformational life story written by Maureen Littlejohn which we have included here. Platinum Award-winning Producer Greg Kavanagh produced the song, now available on all streaming platforms worldwide through Distrokid.

Toronto Indigenous Blues artist D.M. Lafortune continues to revisit her stellar Beauty and Hard Times album with the latest single "Where Are All The Children?" It's a song which is wide-ranging, universal and addresses the injustices, wars and conflicts from the Middle East to Central America and beyond. But it also speaks to the tragedy involving Canadian residential schools and the horrific abuse indigenous children suffered in such institutions.

Many miles from home, we are taught in your fine schools
Where the history books are a weapon, not a tool
In many voices, we try to understand what has come upon this land
Many good-intentioned Christians tell us children you must listen or they kill us
With their kindness in God's name, they terrorize us

Toronto Indigenous Blues/Folk Artist D.M. LAFORTUNE Releases "Mr. Businessman’s Blues" From Upcoming 25th Anniversary Edition of ‘Beauty And Hard Times’

There are plenty of reasons for an artist to want to revisit their work, and many of them go beyond simple OCD. As she marks the 25th-anniversary rerelease of an album she’s issued twice already, under two different titles, Indigenous Toronto blues-folkster Diem (D.M.) Lafortune has more of those reasons than most—some good, some bad, but all of them as bracingly honest as her eternally vital music.