Begonia’s Alexa Dirks has never been able to fit into the box of being a “conventional woman”. “I’m loud, I’m awkward and I’ve always taken up space. I’ve done things my whole life that some people would tell me weren’t appropriate ‘for a girl’.” That narrative that once tore Dirks down is now what empowers her to take charge of her own story, in her own way.

The Winnipeg-based Dirks is a Juno Award winner with her former group Chic Gamine. While she thrived off of the collaboration, once the band broke up she knew she was ready to go solo. Even though she was terrified to go out on her own, that feeling was a fundamental factor to positively reinforce that the path she was on was the correct one. As Begonia, Dirks is bold, brazen with her florid, surprising pop that is tempered with sensitivity and wisdom. Dirks’ first solo output with her 2017 debut EP, Lady in Mind, was well-received, being listed on NPR’s 10 Artists You Need To Know in 2017 and “Juniper” reached #1 on the CBC Music Charts in 2017. Noisey wrote that, “Begonia has one of Canada’s most extraordinary voices, and thankfully she uses it to obliterate the misery from this world one live performance at a time.”