Serena Lauren Ryder (born on December 8, 1982) is a Juno Award-winning Canadian artist. Born in Toronto, she grew up in Millbrook, Ontario. Ryder gained national recognition with her ballad Weak in the Knees in 2007. "I'd been writing a lot since I was maybe 11 years old," Ryder says. "I wasn't doing diary entries; I needed to express something a little deeper than that, which I couldn't express in conversation. And I'd been singing since I was ... See more [+] a little kid, doing cover songs at gigs. But when I got my guitar, a whole other world opened up to me. I realized I could put the poetry I was writing to song and bring two very separate things together." Raised just outside Peterborough in Millbrook, Ontario, Serena Ryder grew up listening to old Beatles and Leonard Cohen records that she found in her parents' collection. At 7, Ryder would sing at legions and motor hotels. Having received a guitar from her father, she began playing the instrument at the age of 13. Songwriting efforts followed. At 15, as Ryder was playing old classic and folk tunes with her piano teacher in coffee houses and legions. At 17, Ryder left her home to go to the big city, Peterborough, and settled into a community of artists to make her dreams come true. Within a year, while working at a Cajun restaurant, attending the Integrated Arts Program at the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute, Ryder played solo and shared the stage with many bands from the Peterborough area including Jive recording artist Three Days Grace. That same year, she recorded a 5 song promotional cassette & Falling Out, her first Indie CD both released in 1999 by the Peterborough, Ontario-based independent record label Mime Radio. Damon de Szegheo, engineer/producer of the promo cassette and Falling Out had discovered her performing during a set change for a local on-stage production of Gone With The Wind when Ryder was 15. Her other independent releases include Serena EP (cassette only with a limited run of 100), Live at The Market Hall & A Day in the Studio in 2002. In February 2011, she toured with Melissa Etheridge across Canada. Ryder's song Broken Heart Sun became a duet with Etheridge and was released on her EP Live. Ryder performed Broken Heart Sun with Etheridge at the Juno Awards that same year. In 2011, Ryder fell in love and it was the main inspiration for her new record, Harmony. Over 65 songs were written for the new album. “It feels like it's the first time I've written...in love. ”After writing more songs while in Los Angeles with Jerrod Bettis and Jon Levine, Ryder released Harmony on November 27, 2012. The first single "Stompa", featured in an episode of ABC television's Grey's Anatomy, quickly climbed the charts and became certified platinum in January 2013. In the United States, less than two months after its release, it was at number 14 on the charts. In Canada, Ryder became the first Canadian artist to be number one on the CBC Top 20 chart days after the release of Harmony. With “Stompa”, Ryder found herself in four radio station formats: Modern Rock, Hot AC, Top 40 and Adult Contemporary
