Begonia is your best friend. She’s the whimsical fairy on your shoulder making you feel all at once comfortable to be yourself while simultaneously making you think wtf is this fairy doing here and what is she wearing. With a voice that compels you to feel everything deeper, she sings like she’s calling you into her world. Sure, on the surface it may simply look like a world overtaken by flowers, colour and lightness but go deeper and it’s also a world that doesn’t shy away from the dark. It’s a world that invites you to be exactly who you are without shame. Her voice is like a delicate sandpaper with iridescent grit.
Her lyrics will make you laugh and cry all within the span of a single phrase. A charm and presence that evokes some of the greatest entertainers of the past but no matter the size of the stage you always feel like you are hearing a secret that is especially for you. Begonia has many stories to tell, many iterations of life to walk you through, and she takes her fans on the journey with a stumbling grace and an uncanny wit. A true sight to behold, sometimes clunky but always beautifully and refreshingly entertaining.
Begonia crafts some of the most honest pop music out there. With ‘Fantasy Life’, she’s simply at the top of her game. There’s more risk, more complex vocals, more pop diva mania, more feeling, more truth, and more fantasy. Begonia, the stage name of Winnipeg entertainer Alexa Dirks, who launched her solo career in 2017 with the EP “Lady in Mind,” featuring the #1 CBC Radio single “Juniper.” Her critically acclaimed full-length albums “Fear” (2019) and “Powder Blue” (2023) have earned her two JUNO Award nominations and two Polaris Music Prize nominations. Begonia followed up with a three song EP, “Open Swim” (2024) which received remarkable response across streaming platforms and radio. Recognized by NPR as an “Artist You Need to Know,” Begonia is celebrated by her core fans for her powerful live performances, which Noisey describes as “obliterating the misery from this world one live performance at a time.” Her captivating stage presence has opened doors for her to perform at clubs, theatres, and festivals globally, connecting with audiences worldwide. Her newest full-length release “Fantasy Life” makes its debut October 2025, via Birthday Cake Records.
Fantasy Life is a collection of thirteen songs written under the heat of the sun in Los Angeles, California and then recorded during the dead of winter in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s about the mundane and the magical, the delusional and the hopeful, the thrilling and the crushing. It’s the promise of spring and then all the snow melts to reveal piles of glittering garbage. It’s watching bright balloons float away into the clouds. It’s a slimy fleshy worm feeding a beautiful garden. A place to escape to but not to live forever.
As described by Begonia, “There’s a spirit of freedom to this record that was such a big part of the songwriting sessions I had in LA with deadmen. I spent a little over a month in total with them writing this record every day and it’s the most RIGHT in songwriting sessions that I’ve ever felt. Everything felt so easy and fun and that has never happened to me quite like that before. This freedom allowed me to go to more complex places with my voice and in my lyrics than I
have in the past. I feel like I’ve grown so much in my sound and my confidence in the last few years and I know that reflects in this record.