Jully Black: Why Canada's queen of R&B soul raises her voice for others

In the 1980s, Rick Astley became a global superstar with hits like “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever.” But then, at age 27, he quit the business. That could have been the end of the story, but then the Rickroll meme of the mid-2000s brought him back to the world’s attention. Now, Rick has released a new memoir, “Never,” in which he opens up about his strange and incredible life. He joins Tom Power to share some of those stories.

Karen Knox’s new film “We Forgot to Break Up” tells the story of The New Normals, a fictional indie rock band on the rise in the early 2000s. Their songs are hard, their relationships are fraught and they’re trying to make it in an industry that wants to shape them into something else. The Canadian director drops by our studio to talk to Tom Power about this coming-of-age story and why she wanted to tell it.

The Grammy-winning Canadian producer Boi-1da has found massive success by crafting hits for the likes of Drake, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Eminem and more. Ahead of being honoured with the International Achievement Award at this year’s Junos, Boi-1da sits down with Tom Power for a rare conversation about his career, what Canadian artists need now more than ever, and how his dad playing a certain couple of tapes in the car led to one of his biggest hits.

Ikky is a Canadian musician and producer who’s bringing Punjabi music to the world — and putting the spotlight on Canada in the process. The international hitmaker has racked up billions of streams and worked with artists both at home and in India. Now, he’s back with a new single, “Tell Me,” which is a bilingual collaboration between OneRepublic and Karan Aujla. Ikky sits down with Tom Power to tell us how that track came to be, how his work fuses traditional Indian music with influences from his upbringing in Toronto, and why he feels more Canadians need to open their minds to Punjabi music.

Kris Davis is a Canadian pianist whose new album, “Run the Gauntlet,” has been getting a lot of attention. She joins Tom Power to tell us why she wanted to dedicate the record to six female jazz pianists who’ve influenced her throughout her career, and how she went about composing new pieces of music in their honour. Plus, Kris sets up the title track from the album.

In Netflix’s new political thriller “Zero Day,” Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Legion) plays Evan Green, a brash, outspoken and wildly popular political commentator who streams his government conspiracies to millions of viewers. Evan’s number one target is the country's former president, played by Robert De Niro. The British actor joins Tom Power to tell us how he developed his character, what he learned from watching hours of conspiratorial media, and what it was like going up against De Niro in this role.

When the Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat was a kid, she felt embarrassed by the Polish disco music her dad listened to. But now that she’s a parent herself, she’s found a new appreciation for her parents’ taste in music. It even inspired a tune on her latest album, “Basia's Palace.” Basia joins Tom Power to talk about the album, the Polish music that soundtracked her childhood, and how she also drew inspiration from video games.

After his huge success with “Parasite” in 2019, Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho is back with a new film, “Mickey 17.” The title character, Mickey (played by Robert Pattinson), is an “expendable” — a disposable crew member on a space colony who undertakes dangerous missions and laboratory tests. Whenever he dies, his body and memories can simply be “reprinted” by his employer. Director Bong joins Tom Power to talk about the film, what he wanted to say about authoritarianism and bad politicians, and the appeal of reprinting Robert Pattinson.

Calgary’s Jan Lisiecki was only nine when made his orchestral debut as a classical pianist. While most of us were still figuring out cursive, he was playing sold-out recitals — so, of course, he was called a child prodigy. But Jan has complicated feelings about that term. He joins guest host Talia Schlanger to talk about his new album, “Preludes,” why he’s been resistant to being called a child prodigy, and what he’s looking forward to as he turns 30 later this month.

Amanda Seyfried was 17 when she landed her breakthrough role as Karen Smith in “Mean Girls.” But as fun as the movie was, she didn’t want to get pigeonholed as “the ditzy blonde” forever. Amanda says her first true departure was her starring role in Atom Egoyan’s erotic thriller “Chloe,” which established her as a serious actor who was willing to take a risk. Now, she’s teamed up with the Canadian director once again on his new film, “Seven Veils.” Tom Power caught up with Amanda to talk about her latest role and how she looks back on the trajectory of her career.