Femme Rising Volume 4

FEAT. MELISSA DUTCH + AOIFE + JOCELYN JUNE + GIGI NOCHE

Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, Melissa Dutch is an active and powerful soul/folk/rock artist from sound to sight to sentiment. Her performing presence, skillful storytelling, and soulful voice have been compared to artists such as Sarah McLachlan, Adele, Alanis Morisette, and Florence Welch. Her work is an observation and an anthem for the outcast, and a beacon for the weird and wonderful. She has performed her original music for Juno Week 2026, Under the Blue Moon at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, headlined for Take Back the Night at Hamilton City Hall with SACHA, and Hamilton Pride 2025. She is the creator and promoter of the Femme Rising Showcase Series at Mills Hardware, in association with Women in Music Canada Hamilton/Halton, facilitating community and development for Femme and Queer artists, and she was selected by the City of Hamilton for the Canadian Music Incubator’s Groundwork program for 2026.

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Meet AOIFE , the moniker of Irish-born, Hamilton-based singer-songwriter Aoife-Louise Doyle. A mixture of folk ethos, rock inflection and pop melodicism influences AOIFE’s musical makeup. Her passion can be traced to an upbringing filled with family acapellas, later to be followed by a postsecondary trajectory as a vocal major. Amidst her musical colleagues, AOIFE drew ambition to document her own world through songwriting. The foundation of her efforts solidified as she deconstructed lines between themes of love, heartbreak, despondency, isolation, independence and solace. AOIFE best utilizes her voice to release subjugated emotions through a flurry of melodies, aiming to project an internal release through her message. AOIFE’s EP when all is said and done available for streaming now.

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Jocelyn June hails from Hamilton, Ontario with a natural talent in music. Her sound is a Janis Joplin meets Amy Winehouse, sprinkled with Alanis Morissette. Over the years Jocelyn has studied privately in classical and jazz vocals, guitar with Gord Lewis, piano with various private teachers and now teaches music to students of all ages. She has fronted the Hamilton All Star Jr. Jazz Band, funk band Skirtcheck, classic rock band The Falcons, and Black Rose. Jocelyn June has grown her solo career, releasing two singles and now extends her work with her own band, Jocelyn June & The Bugs. Jocelyn has a vast variety of material in most genres along with her originals. Jocelyn June continues to pursue her music career taking on all opportunities presented.

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Gigi Noche was born in Cuba in 1993 and immigrated to Canada at the age of 8 when she first heard the timeless Pop Era of the 2000's on the radio. It was through those bangers that Gigi not only taught herself to sing, but also to speak English through looking up lyrics on the dictionary. Performing live since age 16, Gigi's musical tastes evolved, fronting local Latin, classic rock, and pop cover bands. Now in her 30s, Gigi finally defined her own sound as a void in the current pop landscape with a voice that is raw, bright, and nostalgic, having deeply studied her influences like Michael Jackson, Jojo, Drake, Britney Spears, John Mayer, and Mariah Carrey. Gigi majored as a vocalist at Metalworks Institute of Sound & Music Production where she was first introduced to the demands of the music industry. Later joining Instagram in 2017 as a plus-model, Gigi has since collaborated with various creatives within the body positivity movement – amassing a healthy influencer following. Despite facing familial and financial struggles and being a one-woman team, in 2024 Gigi officially kicked off her recording career with her own take on Drake & Michael Jackson's 2018 record "Don't Matter to Me" - which is a testament of her ability to make cover songs uniquely her own, as she often does at her live shows. An undeniable sensation in the making, Gigi Noche plans to record more timeless songs, and spread her infectious energy of unity, love, and sincerity.

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Women in Music Canada (WIMC) is a registered non-profit organization and one of the largest music industry associations in Canada. Through programming, community building, and online resources our goal is to strengthen the social-economic balance of the music industry. WIMC believes that the conversation around equality is an inclusive one, where all voices are welcome and is working to make the music industry a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community for all.