Don Amero

Don Amero is a Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba.[1]

Prior to launching his career as a musician, Amero worked as a hardwood flooring installer,[1] and unsuccessfully tried out for Canadian Idol in 2006.[2] He released his debut CD Change Your Life in 2006,[3] and left his flooring job in 2007.[1] The album garnered five Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award nominations, for best new artist, songwriter, folk or acoustic CD, album cover and producer/engineer.[4]

His second album, Deepening, followed in 2009. The album again garnered several Aboriginal Peoples Choice nominations,[5] and Amero won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year.[6] In 2010, he performed on the bill for APTN's Aboriginal Day Live concert,[7] and released his third album The Long Way Home.[8] The album won the awards for Best Folk Recording at the 2011 Native American Music Awards, and for Best Aboriginal Recording at the Western Canadian Music Awards.[9]

In 2012, he performed at a fundraising benefit concert for indigenous music pioneer Shingoose,[10] and released his fourth album Heart on My Sleeve. He also collaborated with Vince Fontaine of Eagle & Hawk in Indian City, a band whose album Supernation fused traditional First Nations music with experimental rock.[11] Amero won Male Entertainer of the Year, and Supernation won Best Pop Album, at that year's Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.[12] Heart on My Sleeve garnered Amero his first Juno Award nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2013,[13] won the award for Best Folk/Acoustic Album at the 2013 Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards,[14] and was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award.[15]

His fifth album, Refined, was released in 2015.[16] In the same year, he collaborated with country singer Brett Kissel on "Rebuild This Town", a song about cultural reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and other Canadians.[17][18]

At the Juno Awards of 2016, Refined garnered Juno Award nominations for Aboriginal Album of the Year and Adult Contemporary Album of the Year.[19]

In August 2018, Amero released his sixth album, Evolution, which launched him into the country music genre. In 2019, Amero released the single "Music Lover" to Canadian country radio.[20]

In September 2020, Amero released his extended play The Next Chapter.[21]