Mercedes
Papalia
“Her performance was so raw and real, I felt like it opened a lost place inside of me.”
About Mercedes
Mercedes Papalia is a singer-songwriter known for her powerhouse vocals and emotionally rich songwriting. Nicknamed “The Voice” in her local community, she blends soulful melodies with intimate, story-driven lyrics rooted in the complexities of motherhood, the unraveling of self, and a dramatic dose of divine magic.
She began vocal training at age 11 and performed live in jazz clubs by 15. In her early 20’s, Mercedes self-funded and released an original album, performing across Ontario.
She now resides on Pender in the Southern Gulf Islands, where she continues to grow a devoted following through festivals and shows, intimate home concerts, and open mics where she vulnerably workshops new material.
Recent highlights include a standout performance at the sold-out International Women’s Day concert on Pender Island and an upcoming feature at the Mosaic Festival.
Also an actor (The Handmaid’s Tale, Amazon’s Dystopia, No Easy Days) and an award-winning production designer, Whether on stage, behind the camera, or tending her flower farm with her daughter by her side, Mercedes brings a grounded, old-school Italian work ethic and soulful presence to everything she does.
Sorella
sorella noun [ feminine ] /so’rɛlːa/ ● (per padre e/o madre) sister
“SORELLA began with a song that arrived uninvited — spilling out of me at a piano I didn’t know how to play, as if the melody had been waiting in the walls. From that moment, music came like dreams or visions: fragile, haunting, magical. This album is a spellbook of sorts — stitched together with grief, ancestral echoes, memories of the girls we once were, the infinitely complicated bond of sisterhood, and the unconditional love I carry as a neurodivergent mother raising an autistic daughter. It is not a record of resolution, but of becoming.”
A collection of enchanted fragments and emotional truths, SORELLA travels through the aching beauty of what it means to be alive, sensitive, and still searching. These are songs for anyone who’s ever felt like too much or not enough — who’s felt the weight of silence, the cost of survival, and the quiet pull of their own forgotten power. Sorella can’t mend the past – but it makes a melody of the mess, and invites us to sing along.
