Carleton University alumnus Kellylee Evans has been nominated for a Juno Award for jazz vocals.

“I am absolutely delighted that [Evans] has been nominated for a Juno,” said Carleton President Roseann Runte via email. “All who have had the privilege of listening to her know she is a winner.”

Emily-Claire Barlow, the late Jeff Healey, Laila Biali and Nikki Yanofsky have also been nominated for vocal jazz album of the year, according to the Juno Awards website.

This is Evans’ second nomination. She was previously nominated for her album Fight or Flight, but lost to Diana Krall.

“Sometimes it’s good and sometimes I fail miserably,” Evans said, laughing.

“We take every day at a time. We do as much as we can that day and some days we don’t do anything at all,” she said.

Evans said she remembered when she told her daughter that she was nominated again, her daughter asked who had won the last time. When Evans reminded her that the winner was Diana Krall, whom they had seen in concert, her daughter said that Krall was awesome, but her mother was better.

Evans said she discovered jazz at Carleton. She was in the Loeb building and, out of curiosity, took an elevator to the ninth floor. It was the music department.

“I never even knew Carleton had a music department,” Evans said.

Evans said she found a board advertising jazz combos as well as a jazz choir and she signed up for both.

“I went and I studied up on everybody I could think of. I got a calendar and I wrote down a new singer for every month,” she said.

One of the singers that Evans assigned herself to study was Nina Simone, her inspiration for Nina, her newest Juno-nominated album, Evans said.

Evans completed both a bachelor in law and a bachelor in English at Carleton, before beginning her master’s in law in 1997, also at Carleton.

Amy Bartholomew, a law professor at Carleton, said she remembered teaching Evans. “When she was a student at Carleton, I knew she was involved in music but I had absolutely no idea how talented she is,” Bartholomew said via email.

“I just remember it being a really good school,” Evans said. “I loved being at Carleton. It changed my life.”

Evans said she plans to release two new CDs this coming year.

The Juno Awards will take place in Toronto March 26.