Freda Leask is a Shetland born singer/songwriter whose material is a blend of contemporary and traditional music, where cover songs mix with original self-penned material. A keen promoter of the Shetland dialect, many of her own compositions are sung in the local tongue but range in style from contemporary folk to country to gospel. Originator of highly acclaimed Shetland folk group 'Shoormal', Freda still performs as vocalist with some of the original members of this band.
As a singer and writer Freda released early solo albums before becoming part of the successful ‘Shoormal’ collaboration releasing 3 much-celebrated albums, one of which brought a nomination for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Alongside this team, her compositions have received regular airplay in Scotland and internationally.
Freda was also the driving force behind the musical element of the very successful Beacon Christmas Card CD, featuring some of Shetland’s top musicians and selling 100 000 copies world-wide.
Her own musical story has recently received unusual recognition on the childrens’ tv ‘cbeebies’ channel.
Shoormal’s current line-up continues to create original material in the popular ‘Shoormal’ style. This year Shoormal partiicipants are highly talented Shetland musicians: Trevor Smith (guitar), Gregg Arthur (keyboards/accordion/vocals), and Jonathon Ritch (bass/vocals), Archer Kemp (drums) .
