How basketball prepared this Grammy-nominated N.S. musician for the biggest stages

Musician Laura Roy has performed in front of crowds of as many as tens of thousands of people, but it's the hardwood basketball courts of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley that helped ready her for those moments.

Roy, who grew up in Canning, N.S., said her first love was sports, not music. The five-foot-two former point guard won a Division 2 provincial basketball title at Northeast Kings Education Centre.

She said sports helped teach her to battle adversity, something that's been common in her music career.

Situations like driving to the hoop with seconds remaining with the game on the line, only to be fouled and then have a chance to win it at the free throw line have all been good lessons for her.

"Am I gonna trust that all the practice I've put in is going to work in my benefit now?" said Roy. "Do I believe I'm going to make the shot?"

Last year, Roy provided backing vocals for pop star Sabrina Carpenter at Wembley Stadium in London. She did it without a rehearsal or proper sound check.

Other highlights from last year include backing up Carpenter for a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge performance, as well as a Live Lounge performance with pop star Dua Lipa, in addition to doing a world tour with British musician JP Cooper.

After years of making a name for herself backing other musicians, Roy is again looking to be centre stage.

"I think after doing a lot of that work last year, it's definitely allowed me to come back to myself and say, 'OK, I'm really ready to be seen now and be heard," said Roy, who recently won the East Coast Music Award for Vocal Release of the Year for her song Lucy.

Roy, whose music is classified as alternative R&B, has previously released three EPs.

Musician Nicole Ariana has been friends with Roy since they first crossed paths studying music at Nova Scotia Community College more than a decade ago. She said it would be easy for Roy to just focus on being a backing vocalist.

"But she's most passionate about her artist stuff, which I think is incredible because she could make a whole career just travelling the world with celebrities and I really admire that she wants to focus on her art because that's what she really believes in," said Ariana.

Roy was recently home in Nova Scotia recording a new album with local musicians. The album is finished and no release date has been established.

Roy's journey to where she is today has included living in Halifax, Toronto and London, and countless hospitality jobs, paired with her budding music career.

Roy remembers working at a restaurant in the Halifax casino where one night, she had to beg her manager to let her off early because she had a gig backing Asia & NuGruv in another part of the casino.

Her restaurant uniform was formal, including wearing a dress shirt and dress pants. Once off work, she changed into some high heels and her outfit, before strutting over to the performance room for the show.

Roy moved to Toronto in 2014 to further her music career, but said she didn't feel fulfilled creatively or personally, so she moved to London in 2017.

"There was such an energy that I hadn't experienced before," she said. "And it just quite quickly felt like, 'OK, this is where I'm meant to be.'"

Roy said through open mic night and jam nights, she met people in the music community who have become lifelong friends and collaborators, which led to doing session vocalist work.

"It ended up kind of pulling me out of that hospitality, minimum wage world where … you're kind of working to live and then you're so tired it's hard to put energy into your creativity, into yourself, so that struggle is very difficult to balance," she said.

Pandemic pause to music career

After a European tour with artist Anne-Marie in early 2020, the plan was to then tour the world, but the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to that.

Lockdowns shut down live music, so Roy returned to hospitality, working at a café.

"It's a little setback, but I'll get back to where I was," she said. "And eventually, eventually I did."

It was while working at this café that Roy learned she'd received two Grammy nominations for artist Doja Cat's 2021 album Planet Her. Roy contributed some writing and vocals to the album.

"I like to always kind of maintain my perspective on things because I just know how quickly the opportunities can come and go," she said.