As a singer and song writer of passionate love songs, hilarious rants and incisive political ‘protest songs’ Robert has released 3 CDs, written and performed numerous topical songs for radio and TV and entertained live audiences all over the world.
“He is a rare hybrid – a poet who can as easily compose hummable melodies as sing them with power.”
– FM Magazine.
Robert began his singing career at the Harbourfront reading series in 1975 but he soon graduated to folk venues, such as Fat Albert’s in Toronto. In 1980 he became resident topical songwriter on CBC radio’s Is Anybody Home, where he wrote and performed 2 songs a weeks for 2 seasons.
With his first band, The Defayds, and his second, The Great Big Face Band, Robert was a fiery presence in the Toronto Club Scene throughout the eighties when he won the Q107 Homegrown Contest. His spoken word video Congo Toronto (1986) received wide airplay on MuchMusic and established for him a unique place in the poetry/music canon. The nineties saw Priest writing songs for Sesame Street, penning the Chalmer’s Award Winning Musical: Minibugs and Microchips, and collaborating with Canadian Diva Alannah Myles on the hit, Song Instead of a Kiss, which rose to number one on the Canadian charts and earned him his first Socan Award.
Robert released his 3rd album of songs and poems, Tongue’n’groove, on EMI’s prestigious Artisan label. This collection which ‘straddles the crossroads of folk, funk and the word’ established Priest once and for all as a major artist in the field.
“Grand and Mystical…’
– Eye Magazine
Lately Robert has been seen on CBC Television’s The Sunday Night News, where he writes and performs topical songs such as the recent: O Canada for Dummies Eh? These appearances have proven once again that Robert Priest is a great live performer.
“Consistently one of the most entertaining acts in town!”
– Now Magazine
Robert continues to perform his songs regularly in coffee houses, bars, festivals, libraries, house concerts, and stadiums all over the world. He lives in Toronto where he also writes poetry, children?s novels, plays and is a regular contributor to NOW magazine.