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Leslie Feist was born on 13 February 1976 across the provincial border in Amherst, Nova Scotia, which had the closest maternity wing to Sackville. Her parents divorced soon afterwards and Leslie, Ben (her brother), and their mother moved to Regina, Saskatchewan where they lived with her grandparents. They later moved to Calgary, Alberta. She aspired to be a writer, and spent most of her youth singing in choirs. At the age of twelve, Feist performed as one of 1000 dancers in the opening ceremonies of the Calgary Winter Olympics, which she cites as inspiration for the video "1234".

In 1991, at age fifteen, Feist got her start in music when she founded, and was the lead vocalist for a Calgary punk band called Placebo (not to be confused with the European band Placebo). She and her bandmates won a local Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded the opening slot at the festival Infest 1993, featuring the Ramones. At this concert she met Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, with whom she formed Broken Social Scene ten years later.

In 1995, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from vocal-cord damage. She moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1996. That year she was asked by Noah Mintz of hHead to play bass in his solo project Noah's Arkweld. She played the bass guitar in Noah's Arkweld for a year despite never having played bass before. In 1998, she became the rhythm guitarist for the band By Divine Right and toured with them throughout 1998, 1999, and 2000.

Feist's solo debut album, Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down), was released in 1999. It is composed of 10 songs, including "Monarch" and "That's What I Say, It's Not What I Mean." Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down) was produced by Dan Kurtz who would later form Dragonette.

In the summer of 2001, Feist self-produced seven songs at home which she called The Red Demos, which have never been released commercially. After two years, she and a group of old friends formed Toronto indie rock group Broken Social Scene and subsequently recorded You Forgot It in People. While on tour in Europe with Gonzales, they began recording new versions of her home recorded Red Demos, which would later become her major label debut Let It Die. Let It Die featured both original compositions and covers, and Feist has been noted both as a songwriter and as an innovative interpreter of other artists' songs.

After the recording of Let It Die, Feist moved to Paris. While in Europe, she collaborated with Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience, as co-writer and guest vocalist on their album Riot on an Empty Street, singing on "Know How," and "The Build Up." She also co-wrote and sung "The Simple Story" as a duet with Jane Birkin on her album Rendezvous.

Feist toured during 2004, 2005 and 2006 through North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia supporting Let It Die. She won two Canadian Juno Awards for "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Rock Album" in 2004. Sales of Let It Die totaled 500,000 internationally, and she was awarded a platinum record in Canada, as well as a gold album in France.

In 2005, Feist contributed to the UNICEF benefit song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?"

In early 2006, Feist returned to Europe to record a follow-up to Let It Die at LaFrette Studios with Gonzales, Mocky, Jamie Lidell, and Renaud Letang, as well as her touring band Bryden Baird, Jesse Baird, Julian Brown of Apostle of Hustle, and Afie Jurvanen of Paso Mino. An album of remixes and collaborations, Open Season, was released on 18 April 2006.

Feist's third solo album, The Reminder, was released on 23 April 2007 in Europe, and on 1 May 2007 in Canada, the USA, and the rest of the world. She toured worldwide to promote the album. The album features "1234," a song co-written by New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann, that became a surprise hit after being featured in a commercial for the iPod nano, hitting #8 in the US, a rare feat for indie rock musicians and even more notable since it hit the Top Ten on the strength of downloads alone. She has been lauded in the press and was featured on the cover of the New York Times arts section in June 2007. The Reminder had sold worldwide over 1,000,000 copies and is certified gold in the U.S. The album also won a 2008 Juno Award for "Album of the Year" on 6 April 2008 in Calgary, Alberta.