Kellie Loder

Kellie Loder
Kellie Loder at one of two free coffeehouses in Newfoundland in December 2012
Background information
Born	1988
Origin	Badger, Newfoundland, Canada
Genres	Contemporary Christian Gospel folk-pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)	Drums guitar piano vocals
Years active	2009–present
Website	kellieloder.com

Kellie Loder (born 1988) is an independent singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who plays drums, guitar and piano. They have released three albums: The Way in 2009, Imperfections & Directions in 2010 and Benefit of the Doubt in 2018. With a voice that St. John's-based newspaper The Telegram has described as "powerful yet serene and soulful", they received critical recognition from Canada, including a nomination at the Juno Awards.

Having written their first song at age 16 about a cousin who died in a traffic accident, Loder was studying nursing at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland when they released The Way in August 2009. Later that year, Loder won a talent-search contest hosted by YC Newfoundland, a Christian youth conference. As part of the award, Loder was given time with music industry and production professionals who helped them with Imperfections & Directions, which was released at the 2010 YC Newfoundland. The album was nominated for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year at the 2012 Juno Awards. Loder is also a nominee of three MusicNL awards, including Gospel Artist of the Year in 2011.

Loder's music career is unusual in that they chose to begin it in Contemporary Christian music (CCM); most young musicians choose music genres such as country and pop, which are generally considered more likely to bring commercial success. Loder has asserted that they chose CCM because it gives purpose to their music; however, they later shifted their focus toward mainstream pop and rock music, stating that they still write music from a spiritual perspective but want to be accessible to a wider audience.^[1]

Loder has come out as queer and non-binary, and uses gender-neutral pronouns. They have recently come out as transgender.^[2]