Billboard Canada
Samara Joy is set to receive the Ella Fitzgerald Award at the 2025 Montreal Jazz Festival on June 28 at Maison symphonique, Place des Arts. Joy has won five Grammys in the last three years (from five nominations, for a perfect score so far). She won best new artist in 2023 and has won two awards each for best jazz vocal album and best jazz performance.
Fitzgerald, of course, was Grammy royalty. At the inaugural Grammy ceremony in 1959, she became the first woman to receive an album of the year nomination (for Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook). In 1967, she became the first woman to receive a lifetime achievement Award from the Recording Academy.
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Joy is the 25th winner of the Ella Fitzgerald Award, which is given annually to a talented jazz singer who has had a major impact on the international scene.
Thundercat, Natalia Lafourcade, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Duncan Hunter Neale are also set to be honored at the festival, which is officially dubbed the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.
Thundercat will receive the Miles Davis Award on Tuesday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts. Thundercat is the 30th winner of the award, which pays tribute to a world-renowned jazz artist, their body of work and their innovation in the genre. Thundercat, who has won two Grammys, has in recent years gone from virtuoso bassist to star.
Natalia Lafourcade will receive the Antônio Carlos Jobim Award on Thursday, June 26, and Friday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts. Lafourcade is the 20th winner of the award, which honors artists who stand out in world music. Lafourcade, a four-time Grammy winner, blends traditional Latin American music and contemporary sounds.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram will receive the B.B. King Award on Thursday July 3 at 7:30 p.m. at TD Stage. “Kingfish” is the eighth winner of the award, which honors a standout artist on the blues scene. “Kingfish,” who won a Grammy in 2022 for best contemporary blues album, is a critically-acclaimed guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Duncan Hunter Neale will receive the Oliver Jones Award on Saturday, July 5 at 6 p.m. at Le Studio TD. This award was created in honor of Oliver Jones, a Montréal jazz icon who has left an indelible mark on the history of the festival. Neale, an emerging trumpeter on the Montréal music scene, is the fifth recipient of the award, which is given to young, university-level musicians who identify as members of visible minorities or Indigenous communities. The Ottawa-born Neale studied music improvisation and composition at McGill University, where he became better acquainted with Black American music and the history of the African diaspora, while reconnecting with his Ghanaian heritage.
The 45th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal will take place from June 26 to July 5 in the Quartier des Spectacles, which is located in the heart of downtown Montreal. The festival will entail close to 150 indoor concerts and more than 350 free, open-air shows, presented on the Place des Festivals.
TikTok is a time machine. Hearing his songs on the app, Khalid finds himself in an earlier era.
Last February, the Billboard Hot 100-topping R&B and pop artist noticed one of his early hits was resurfacing. “Location” — which peaked at No. 16 in 2017 — was connecting with listeners all over again, who were singing along to the yearning lyrics about love in the digital age with a fresh perspective.
“It’s a whole new society, a whole new age of young adults who are experiencing this song,” Khalid says. “I lived it, and I performed it, but to see people who are now the age I was then listening to that song, it’s surreal, funny and nostalgic. It makes me live vicariously through that experience. I’m like, wow, there’s a reason why it resonates with them: because that was real.”
When he first wrote the song, Khalid was a teenager himself. A 17-year-old living in El Paso, Texas, he uploaded the track to SoundCloud without ever considering the impact the now-diamond-certified song might one day have on young lovelorn listeners a decade later.
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“Turning 27 this year came with a lot of reflection on life,” he says. “I started to look back at where I was when I was 17. To be able to be in my career for as long as I have, to still have an impact, even to see things going viral on TikTok — I feel like that version of me 10 years ago would be so proud and so happy. And if you had told him all of [what would happen in the next 10 years]?” he says with a chuckle. “He wouldn’t have had a clue.”
Now fully cemented as an in-demand collaborator, global arena artist and reliably charting hit-maker, Khalid is ready to rediscover the innocent version of himself that he was before he found success.
He wants to be the most open and honest version of himself — not necessarily the serious and emotional version Khalid spent years of his life pouring into 2024’s Sincere, but one that is able to relax because he has fully embraced his own identity.
“Not just my moody side, but the fun side,” he says. “The flirty side.”
Though Sincere was a deeply personal album, there was one part of himself Khalid hadn’t quite revealed yet.
In November 2024, Khalid was outed by an ex-boyfriend. Though it’s not how he wanted to share that part of his identity with his fans, with a simple rainbow emoji he confirmed that he is gay and “not ashamed of [his] sexuality.’”
He was never hiding anything, he says, just protecting that part of his privacy. Stepping back onstage and seeing the reaction from his fans reaffirmed his open and honest approach to music.
“I had a moment where I walked out and I looked into the crowd, and I’m singing these songs that — I was obviously gay when I wrote them, but the world may not have known,” he recounts. “Everybody is singing them the same way they were before I was outed! So [that shows me] none of my fans care about my sexual preferences. I think they care about our mutual respect for music.”
Blue Marble shirt, Bonnie & Clyde glasses.
Joelle Grace Taylor
He realized he didn’t have to keep finding ways to protect his privacy. It was a liberating experience, he says, seeing that very little had changed.
“Finding that freedom comes from knowing I can just be myself and still be embraced and appreciated,” he says. “That doesn’t change because the world finds out I’m gay. Because I don’t change because the world finds out I’m gay.”
Though artists express themselves through their music, the songs live their own lives. Once they’re out in the world, fans can project their own feelings and experiences onto them. In some ways, the music belongs to the listener as much as the artist.
After he came out, a fan pointed out that his 2022 song “Satellite” was already “an LGBTQ anthem.” In addition, “Better” has been used as a first dance at multiple weddings, and the 2017 song “Young Dumb & Broke” has become a staple at graduations. As listeners find meaning in the music, it takes on its own dimensions.
“When you’re an artist, you carry a responsibility,” Khalid says. “People will live to your music, people will die to your music, people will give birth, people will be reborn. There’s so much emotion involved in the exchange of music from artists to listeners.”
He uses “Young Dumb & Broke” as an example. The song’s universal experience of the feeling of invincibility of life in your teenage years has persisted from one generation to the next, which is something he would not have predicted.
“ ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ lasting as long as it has now would have never been anything I imagined, because when I made that song, I was so presently focused on being young, dumb and broke,” he says. “When I was singing that song at 19, I probably would have told you that I couldn’t wait to stop singing that song. Now, I love it.”
Khalid says he wants to inspire young Black men to be comfortable being open about their sexuality, but he doesn’t see the music as appealing to any specific kind of listener because of the identity of the person making it.
“Music is subjective,” he says. “If you place yourself in an experience, we can relate to people all across the board. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter if you’re straight. We all have feelings and we all have emotions.”
Khalid is a major star of the streaming era. He has multiple songs in Spotify’s Billions Club (tracks with 1 billion streams), including “Location,” “Young Dumb & Broke” and “Lovely,” his collaboration with Billie Eilish. At his 2019 streaming peak, he spent some time as the most popular artist on the platform.
When he first started, though, those platforms were barely on his radar. Instead, he uploaded his first songs to SoundCloud, the streaming site where users once shared their own music and mixtapes — a popular platform for new musicians. There was very little thought to strategy or rollout.
“Naturally, that led to other apps like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and so on. But that’s where it all started,” he recalls. “I remember being on the phone with a friend, like, ‘I’m about to upload my song to the internet.’ It felt so carefree back then — just making songs with my friends and throwing them online. Nobody could have imagined what streaming would become today.”
Though he couldn’t have predicted it, Khalid was uniquely positioned for the streaming era. He’s often categorized as an R&B singer, but he has a genre fluidity that has landed him on a diverse number of Billboard charts: Adult Contemporary, Latin, Rock & Alternative, Rap, Dance. He has a song for every playlist.
As a child, Khalid’s parents were in the Army and he often found himself moving around. He spent six years living in Germany when he was young, then spent some of his formative teen years from eighth grade until just before his senior year in upstate New York, just 20 minutes from the Canadian border.
“Being a military kid, I was like a sponge, just soaking in all the cultures around me,” he recounts. “When I was in northern New York, I got introduced to American folk music, which became a big part of my foundation as an artist and really shaped my songwriting. Then living in Germany exposed me to pop music from a different perspective. And coming from the South, R&B is definitely at my core. So all these different shades of music come together to make who I am.”
PDF top, pants and shoes; Gentle Monster glasses, Magdelena necklace, Rolex watch.
Joelle Grace Taylor
He’d moved to El Paso by the time he released his breakout 2017 debut album, American Teen, but it was inspired by his experiences growing up both there and at Fort Drum, just outside of Watertown, N.Y. Like so many other teenagers growing up outside of a major city, he spent a lot of time bored or partying — and dabbling in music.
“A lot of the stories that ended up inspiring American Teen came from that time in my life,” he recalls. “It was cold and kind of bleak, with not a whole lot to do — but there were definitely a lot of parties. At the time, it was fun and wild. Looking back now as an adult, I’m like, ‘Why did you get yourself into some of those situations?’ But honestly, it was the perfect setting for teenage angst — just growing up, facing challenges and mentally taking notes.”
His mother was restationed to El Paso before his senior year of high school, and he decided to go with her. Lonely and separated from his friends, he began writing songs and uploading them online. At the time, Right Hand Co.’s Courtney Stewart was managing a number of producers when he was introduced to Khalid through mutual friends on Twitter and heard some of his SoundCloud demos.
“He didn’t know it at the time, but he was writing a generational album in American Teen,” Stewart says. “As soon as I heard that voice and those lyrics, I was like, ‘This is incredible.’ It was something I had never heard before. His tone, the youthfulness of the lyrics and just how it made me feel. So I got on a plane and went and met with him.” (Khalid’s management team now includes Stewart, Mame Diagne, Jordan Holly and Relvyn Lopez at Right Hand.)
Other artists and producers have heard the same thing in his music. His ability to adapt to different sounds and his breadth of universal experiences has made him an ideal collaborator for everyone from J Balvin to Marshmello to Logic to Halsey.
Growing up near the Canadian border may also have endeared him to artists from the country. He’s collaborated with a number of Canadian artists, including Majid Jordan, Tate McRae, Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara and Justin Bieber. He’s also made a big impact in the country, with 40 songs charting on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
Khalid says he loves collaborating, which brings the best attributes of two sounds together. Having another voice in the room can also let him get out of his own head, he says, and recognize when a song is a hit.
Most importantly, he’s sure enough in his own voice that no matter the genre he’s working in or the artist he’s performing with, he’s still recognizably Khalid.
“I think not losing sight and just trusting my voice has led me to be in any sound comfortably because I get to pull up as myself,” he says. “When you feel yourself on a track, you can’t fake it. It’s real.”
Being rather private, Khalid worries he’s created an impression of himself as an introverted person. Now, he’s ready to bust that myth.
“I’m actually extremely extroverted,” he says. “I love to socialize, I love to hang out, I love to see new things and meet new people. I mean, my [2019] album was called Free Spirit, but I really do believe I am one. I made that album only to go into hiding afterward. I don’t feel like that’s very much freedom. But now, I feel like I do have my freedom.”
Embracing his full self has brought him back to the carefree headspace of his SoundCloud days — but with the experience and maturity of an established music career.
“I started off just having fun and when I gained a career, I started to take myself a little too seriously,” he admits. “I had my fair share of time to be serious. Now I don’t have a care in the world. I can just have fun.”
In a recently posted TikTok clip, Khalid is vibing to a snippet of an unreleased song on the streets of Manhattan. In a black hoodie and throwback raver pants and holding a black handbag, he dances along to a track that blends his signature mellow, wise-beyond-his-years vocals with a sound that evokes decadent early-2000s pop by Britney Spears or The Pussycat Dolls. Grinning ear to ear, he stops to take a quick photo with a fan. It takes only 15 seconds to see the comfort and excitement of his new chapter.
“My new era of music feels like I’m finally ready to be the artist I’ve always dreamt of being,” he says. “It goes back to the regressions of when I was a child — imagining myself and thinking, ‘I want to be this artist one day.’ Now I feel like I have the confidence to finally be that artist.”
Libertine shirt, ERL pants, Adidas shoes, Magdelena rings.
The Billboard Summit is launching in Canada with a global superstar who made history in the country.
Diljit Dosanjh will be a special speaker at the event, which will launch at NXNE in Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox on June 11, 2025.
The record-setting artist made history with his Dil-Luminati tour last year, with his stadium concerts at Vancouver’s BC Place and Toronto’s Rogers Centre going down as the biggest ever Punjabi music events outside of India. The musician and movie star has continued to spread Punjabi culture worldwide, recently bringing historic fashion to the Met Gala.
At the summit, Dosanjh will sit down for a special interview with another influential figure in the international music industry: Panos A. Panay, president of the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys.
Billboard Canada has also announced two big performers for The Stage at NXNE.
Daniel Caesar is returning to where he played his first major headlining show: The Mod Club in Toronto on June 14.
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The venue will be reverting back to its original name of The Mod Club, rebranded by owner Live Nation from the name Axis Club for the first time since 2021.
When he first played the venue, Caesar was a golden boy with a golden voice, gaining buzz with his EP Pilgrim’s Paradise and still a year away from his classic 2017 debut, Freudian.
In 2023, Caesar graduated to arenas, playing Madison Square Garden in New York and Scotiabank Arena in his hometown of Toronto. The Mod Club performance is a special, intimate show for his fans who have been with him from the beginning. A year after he played The Mod Club in 2017, Caesar also played NXNE — then an up-and-coming talent, and now, with the festival turning 30, an artist who has reached undeniable headliner status.
After the last girls have left the party for their special DJ set on June 12, The Beaches will also play a special concert at a well-known Toronto venue on June 15.
It’s a big summer for the breakout Canadian band, with a recent festival set at Coachella and another big one this summer at Osheaga in Montreal. The Beaches’ new album, No Hard Feelings, comes out Aug. 29 on AWAL.
The band has also just announced the Canadian dates on its No Hard Feelings Tour, including its first hometown arena show at Scotiabank Arena on Nov. 6. The Beaches’ special Billboard Canada Live show will be considerably more intimate, a chance to get up close and personal with the band at a surprise venue. – Richard Trapunski
Quebec to Impose Quotas for French-Language Content on Streaming Platforms
Quebec may soon be getting stricter language regulations on streaming services.
Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe tabled a new bill on May 21 that aims to add more French-language content to major streaming platforms, as well as increase its discoverability and accessibility by establishing quotas. The bill will directly impact platforms that offer media content such as music, TV, video and audiobooks, including giants like Netflix and Spotify.
Lacombe wants to push French-language and Quebecian content to the forefront on these apps, saying it is not always readily available. He pointed out that consumption of local and French-language content is low, comprising just 8.5% of the music streamed in Quebec.
In accordance with the bill, platforms would have to display their default interfaces in French within the province, also including platforms that produce original French-language content within that selection. Companies that disobey the rules could face financial penalties, although Lacombe says that those who cannot comply due to their business model can enter a deal with the Quebec government to establish “substitute rules.”
The bill states that the Quebec government would have to establish content proportions or quotas on how much content needs to be produced or featured on these platforms, although no numbers were specified.
Bill 109 — officially titled “An Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Quebec and to enact the Act respecting the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment” — will be closely tied to existing Quebec legislation and institutions. All platforms will be required to register with the Minister of Culture and Communications, and the bill will amend the right to access French-language cultural content in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
While Quebec is tightening regulations, the streaming services are already pushing back against existing content policies, arguing that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should not impose content obligations upon them. A CRTC hearing is currently underway from May 14 to 27 to outline a new definition of Canadian Content (CanCon), including regulations.
Major companies have been pushing back against the CRTC’s implementation of the Online Streaming Act in the hearing, which includes a plan to require major foreign streaming companies to invest in Canadian Content funds. – Stefano Rebuli
SOCAN, Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization, turns 100 this year. It’s celebrating with a major milestone — but also issuing a warning to the Canadian music industry.
The organization has reported a record-high half-billion dollars in total royalty distributions to music creators and publishers.
Today (April 2), SOCAN released its 2024 Annual Report, which shows a total of $512.4-million in distributed royalty payments. SOCAN revenue also grew to $559.4-million in 2024, a 7% increase over 2023. SOCAN currently has nearly 200,000 songwriter, composer, and music publisher members.
SOCAN’s record royalty distributions were 17.5% higher than 2023. That includes royalties paid to music creators and publishers derived from data matched to revenue received in 2023 and beginning of 2024.
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That would seem to be unqualified good news, but in a statement, SOCAN called the results “bittersweet for the member-owned, not-for-profit.” That’s because SOCAN data shows less than 10% of music consumed online in Canada was written or composed by Canadians.
“Never in history has consuming Canadian meant more to our nation,” SOCAN writes. “As SOCAN celebrates 100 years, the organization urges Canadians to support homegrown talent. The music that Canadian songwriters and composers create is important to Canada’s local economy, our culture, our storytelling, and our global identity.”
SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown (one of Billboard Canada‘s 2024 Power Players) drives home the “support local” message.
“Canadians are increasingly choosing local products and services, driving the success of Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs. It’s important to show the same support for our songwriters and composers — not just today, but always,” she says. “Canadian music fans, businesses and government, alongside the international music companies choosing to grow their business in Canada, all play a role in showcasing music as part of Canada’s cultural identity.”
Clearly, the performing rights org is hopeful that the current surge in patriotic Canadian pride in the face of a trade war with and threats of annexation from the U.S. may have an impact on the way we all use and consume music.
The report features other data, including an increase in revenue from music uses that took place in Canada by $18.1-million to a high of $421.6-million. The increase is led by revenue from digital sources totaling $208.7-million, a 10.8% year-over-year increase, and General Licensing and Concerts increasing 15%. Revenue from music uses in international territories, meanwhile, increased an impressive 14.9% to $137.8-million, a testament to the talent and success of Canadian music creators on the global stage.
SOCAN also boasts a new software platform to be be complete in 2025, improved distribution processing times, an educational SOCAN Academy initiative, and development and networking programs. “Even with these essential enhanced efforts, SOCAN was able to maintain their expense-to-revenue ratio at 12%” the report says.
SOCAN’s Annual and General meeting is scheduled for May 21, in Toronto.
This story was originally published by Billboard Canada.
Canadian music producer Bob Ezrin is coming home.
Ezrin plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship. He’s made a full return to Canada from his most recent U.S. base, Nashville.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail‘s Brad Wheeler, Ezrin explains that the current polarized state of American politics and society is the driving force behind this move.
“In the last few years, it seems as if America is split in half,” Ezrin says. “The voices of a radical right have become so much louder. Conspiracy theories abound, people are armed to the teeth, and it’s just a different place than the place I went to.”
Already a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Ezrin was recently named as a recipient of the lifetime artistic achievement award by The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation, honoured for a legendary discography that includes milestone albums by such international stars as Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, U2, Deep Purple, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Taylor Swift, Alice Cooper, Nine Inch Nails, Kiss, Lou Reed and many more.
Ezrin and his family moved to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1985, and he became heavily involved in the community of that area. The following decade, he became a U.S. citizen in order to vote.
“I was very engaged, very committed,” he tells Wheeler. “I believed in the country and I believed in the American people, in spite of things like the Iraq War and the income inequality I saw growing, and in spite of the racism that was knitted into the fabric of American life. I still believed the goodness of the majority of Americans would prevail.”
His decision to move back to Canada predated Donald Trump’s inflammatory remarks about annexing this country and his decision to impose excessive trade tariffs, but Ezrin states, “All that underscored the rightness of what I’d decided to do,” he says. “If I’m going to spend time fighting the good fight anywhere, I should do it here.”
Even while spending much of his time in the U.S., Ezrin retained close ties to the Canadian music community. In addition to producing records by Canadian artists, he has contributed immensely to the cause of music education in Canada.
After his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004, he became involved with the MusiCounts charity, and he helped initiate the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award at the Junos. He and his wife Jan are also founding donors of the MusiCounts Leadership Circle.
In the U.S., Bob Ezrin teamed up with The Edge from U2 to co-found Music Rising, an initiative to replace musical instruments lost in natural disasters. He is also a board member of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, a national initiative that supports music in U.S. schools by donating musical instruments to under-funded music programs.
It is symbolically fitting that one of the blockbuster albums produced by Ezrin was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. With this decision to give up his American citizenship, he has now made it crystal clear which side of the symbolic Canada/U.S. wall he has chosen.
Even while spending much of his time in the U.S., Ezrin retained close ties to the Canadian music community. In addition to producing records by Canadian artists, he has contributed immensely to the cause of music education in Canada.
After his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004, he became involved with the MusiCounts charity, and he helped initiate the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award at the Junos. He and his wife Jan are also founding donors of the MusiCounts Leadership Circle.
In the U.S., Bob Ezrin teamed up with the Edge from U2 to co-found Music Rising, an initiative to replace musical instruments lost in natural disasters. He is also a board member of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, a national initiative that supports music in U.S. schools by donating musical instruments to under-funded music programs.
It is symbolically fitting that one of the blockbuster albums produced by Ezrin was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. With this decision to give up his American citizenship, he has now made it crystal clear which side of the symbolic Canada/U.S. wall he has chosen.
This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
It’s finally starting to dawn on the members of Sum 41. This is really it.
“For the first time, this really feels like the end,” says Deryck Whibley in an exclusive interview with Billboard Canada.
The frontman of the quintessential Canadian pop-punk band is speaking over Zoom from his studio in Las Vegas during a rare break from Sum 41’s “Tour of the Setting Sum.”
Back from Australia and looking ahead to the final leg of the tour in the band’s home country, Whibley is coming to terms with the finality of a decision he announced in 2023: after more than two decades together, Sum 41 is coming to an end.
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Now — following a world tour that has stretched on for nearly a year and a final album that has brought them some of the biggest success since their years as high schoolers breaking out of the garages of the Toronto suburb of Ajax, Ontario in the early 2000s — the band has just one concert left, Jan. 30 at their hometown Scotiabank Arena.
“I never had an idea of when to end it or how to end it or if I’d even end it,” Whibley admits. “There were lots of times I thought this is going to be the thing I do forever. But I just couldn’t deny the feeling that this was the time. Something internally was telling me it was time to move on. It even surprised me.”
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It surprised his bandmates, too. “Blindsided” is the word Whibley uses.
Two of those members, bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin and lead guitarist Dave “Brownsound” Baksh, he’s known since his first year of high school. The others, drummer Frank Zummo and guitarist Tom Thacker (also of vital Vancouver punk band Gob), have been with the band for years. They all had settled into a locked-in performance peak and momentum that had brought them through the pandemic and towards an album they all recognized as one of the best in their sizable discography.
That now-final album, Heaven :X: Hell, has exceeded those expectations. It hit No. 37 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart and No. 23 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. In 2024, “Landmines” hit No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart, breaking the record for the longest gap between No. 1 hits – 22 years after “Fat Lip” ruled in 2001. Another single, “Dopamine,” soon followed, hitting No. 1 on the same chart near the end of the year.
But ending the band now gives Sum 41 the opportunity, for the first time since those early days, to control their own fate. The band, and especially Whibley, has had an unbelievably eventful career – from record-breaking album deals to struggles with addiction, tabloid infamy to multiple near death experiences. And now, they are going out on a high, ending with an induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on March 30 with a final televised performance in Vancouver on the Juno Awards broadcast.
“There’s a story there, and I’m proud of the whole story,” says Whibley. “It’s a validation of everything we’ve been working for, from playing in the basement as teenagers to now – here we are. We’ve gone through all the ups and downs, sticking through it all and getting to a point where we could write our own ending the way we wanted to.”
For Whibley, writing that ending has meant coming to terms and processing everything Sum 41 has been through as a band, and everything he has been through personally. And doing so has also cast what we know about the band in new light.
In 2024, while Sum 41 was basking in the success of “Landmines,” Whibley set off another explosion.
In his autobiography, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell, published by Simon & Shuster in March, Whibley revisits the band’s whole history. He writes about going from high school to becoming one of the biggest Canadian punk bands of all time, mixing rock star tales with introspective and raw reflections on living with addiction and possible PTSD.
As he re-explored the band’s history, he kept coming back to something he had not spoken about publicly and had only shared with a few people in his life, not even his bandmates.
Greig Nori, Whibley’s mentor and Sum 41’s manager from their early days until his eventual firing in 2005, he writes, groomed and sexually abused him over the course of many years. It started when Nori was 35 and Whibley was 16, he says in the book, and it often made it hard for him to celebrate the band’s biggest successes.
It took him many years to recognize what he went through as misconduct, he says, and it was his then-partner Avril Lavigne and his now-wife Ariana Cooper who told him that what he went through was abuse. He still won’t use a specific word to describe it, instead choosing to just recount what he went through without labelling it.
“This was my first time truly confronting it [in the book],” Whibley says. “I have heard other people’s stories of grooming and abuse and thought, is that what happened to me? It was still a question mark, but the stories were similar. I couldn’t deny that it felt manipulative. As an adult now in this position that I’m in, I can see how easily that 16-year-old kid could have been manipulated. I see how I fell into it.”
Nori, the former leader of the band Treble Charger, has denied the allegations. As SooToday has reported, Nori has filed a notice of action seeking more than $6 million in damages from Whibley and Simon & Schuster for “libel, breach of confidence, intrusion upon seclusion, wrongful disclosure of private facts, and placing the plaintiff in a false light.” Whibley has reportedly responded with his own notice of action seeking $3 million in damages from Nori for accusing him of lying in his memoir and damaging his reputation.
Through representatives, Whibley declined to comment on the legal actions, which were filed shortly after our initial interview. However, in that conversation, he did talk about the possibility his accusations could make their way to the courtroom.
“In a way, I hope it does,” he says. “I’d love for him to go under oath and talk about it in front of a jury and a judge. I have nothing to hide at this point. It’s all out there. I already went public with it. Let’s see what you have to say, Greig.”
Though he accepts the possibility of a legal battle, Whibley says writing about his experiences was as much about Nori as about himself. Going public means he no longer has to hold his story in and deal with its effects on his own. But it’s also about helping others who may have had similar experiences.
After the book came out, Whibley went and read all of his Instagram comments and messages. He’d checked his personal DMs so rarely in the past that he had to ask his wife to show him how. But he wanted to be there for people who recognized something in his writing.
“I’ve had so many messages of people messaging me on social media, and also people who I know who have come up to me and said, ‘I went through something similar,’” he says. “People who have never said anything in their lives. No matter what happens, it’s worth it if I can help people.”
When he was first approached about writing a book, Whibley didn’t quite get it.
“I thought it was going to be really boring,” he says. “‘High school band makes it.’ Cool, that’s fun. But what else is there to say?”
As he started putting it all on paper, he realized just how consistently eventful and unpredictable Sum 41 has been.
“There’s always something good or bad happening, and we’ve never really taken a break.”
Left to right: Dave “Brownsound” Baksh, Jason “Cone” McCaslin, Deryck Whibley, Tom Thacker, Frank Zummo, .
Lane Dorsey/Billboard Canada
Whibley met McCaslin and Baksh along with original drummer (and occasional rapper) Steve “Stevo32” Jocz as high school students in Ajax in the ‘90s.
They played their first official show as Sum 41 at a battle of the bands at the Opera House in Toronto. They hatched a scheme to sell the most tickets, which would guarantee them a professional photo shoot, but despite the school bus full of friends they brought to the show, they were made to play first on the 5 pm slot and were subsequently ghosted on the prize.
But it was there they solidified their relationship with Nori (who Whibley had invited after sneaking backstage at a Treble Charger show) and Marc Costanzo of the band Len (famous for the Billboard Hot 100 No. 9 hit, “Steal My Sunshine”).
Those connections helped Whibley sign a publishing deal with EMI Publishing Canada when he was still 17. That helped them record their demos, which they sent out to all the major labels in Canada, getting a hard pass from all of them. Whibley writes in Walking Disaster that Universal Music Canada called them the worst band they had heard in a decade. (The only bite was from a smaller Canadian label called Aquarius Records, run by music industry legend Donald K. Tarlton, who they gave exclusive Canadian rights to when they eventually signed a worldwide major label deal.)
The key, they thought, was to get the labels to see them live, where they went all out in every show, which included trampolines and roman candles and flaming drumsticks. Instead of playing private shows in sterile label offices, they arranged a five-week residency at a venue called Ted’s Wrecking Yard and invited all of the industry bigwigs to see them there – and this time, they thought beyond Canada.
The shows became the stuff of local legend, and it became the spot for other thirsty bands to try to make deals too.
“There were all these other bands who thought, who’s this young kid band out of high school that’s getting all this attention? We’ve been doing this forever, we’re more punk rock than them,” Whibley remembers. “Then when all these labels started coming out to see us, every band in Toronto was all of a sudden our best friend. I remember this one band, Robin Black & The Intergalactic Rock Stars, coming to out to our shows and trying to get a record deal, like ‘f-ck this Sum 41 band, you need to sign us.’”
By the end of 1999, Sum 41 had signed a $3.5 million record deal as the first rock act on the major label Island Def Jam. At the time, it was the biggest deal ever signed by a Canadian band.
The band’s debut on the label, 2001’s All Killer No Filler, became a big hit on both sides of the border, going platinum in Canada and the United States. “Fat Lip,” with its iconic video that perfectly captures the burgeoning counterculture of the era, topped the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, joining videos for the endlessly catchy “In Too Deep” and “Makes No Difference” (from their debut EP, Half Hour of Power, the video featured an out-of-nowhere cameo from DMX) in heavy rotation on MuchMusic and MTV.
Sum 41 were the right band at the right time. It was an era when bands like Blink-182 and Green Day were hitting the mainstream, Warped Tour was providing a home for teenagers to see punk bands on a yearly basis, skate culture was hitting its peak and Jackass was becoming a home for unapologetic juvenile humor.
They were four high school punks from the suburb, playing pranks and having house parties – and they gave their fans a front row seat. In a time before social media and YouTube, they took a camcorder everywhere they went, filming their pranks (usually involving petty property damage with eggs or fire extinguishers, though also often piss and shit) and used them as their VHS calling cards.
It resonated with fans and music media, but not so much with critics. They were often written off in the media as goofy burnout kids, trend-folllowers or mainstream rip-offs of underground bands. They were covered for their antics, but not as much for the songs.
“In a way, I think you set the tone for the way people are going to receive you. When you come in and everything’s a joke, then nothing really gets taken seriously,” says Whibley. “For the longest time, that was a pet peeve for me. I have a sense of humour, but I’m not the funny person in the band. I’m the writer and I’ve always been the writer, and I’ve always wanted to talk more about the lyrics and the music and the inspiration. I do love the humour of the band in the early days. I just always wished there could have been some kind of balance. It was very personal to me and I was very serious about it, but it did get overlooked or overshadowed.”
As the band progressed, their music got darker and heavier. Songs on 2002’s Does This Look Infected? and 2004’s Chuck often covered themes of depression and existential angst, alienation, health and societal unrest. Looking back, Whibley recognizes lyrics, like the “dead end situation,” he sings about being stuck in on “No Brains,” that may have subconsciously touched his private struggle with his feelings about what he was going through with Nori.
Chuck was also informed by a near death experience the band had while on a War Child trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gunfire broke out while they were there, and they named the album after the Canadian UN peacekeeper who saved them, Charles “Chuck” Pelletier. The album often felt far removed from the pop-punk hijinks of just a few years ago.
Around this time, Whibley dated Paris Hilton and then spent four years married to Avril Lavigne from 2006 to 2010. While Whibley was a regular of the celebrity-filled L.A. party scene, he was often mocked for his height and his unconventional rock star looks, which he says took a toll. He became an unlikely fixture of celebrity tabloids, which were rampant and often vicious in the 2000s era.
“I hated that kind of stuff,” he says. “The funny thing is as much as Avril and I ended up in some of it, we avoided it at all costs. The amount of times we were able to go in and out of back entrances to avoid being photographed was amazing. We were out quite a bit, and I would say 90% of the time we were never photographed – but we had to work at it. There’s some times we couldn’t, and that’s when you saw us.”
He was still in the public eye, but frustratingly rarely for his music.
Sum 41 photographed on Jan. 27, 2025 at Canada Life Place in London, Ontario. Left to right: Tom Thacker, Frank Zummo, Deryck Whibley, Dave “Brownsound” Baksh, Jason “Cone” McCaslin
Lane Dorsey/Billboard Canada
Over the years, Whibley struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol and had multiple near-death experiences, sometimes in the midst of Sum 41 tours. After being hospitalized for liver and kidney failure in 2014, Whibley and his wife Ariana dedicated themselves to getting clean. He’s now been sober for 11 years.
Sum 41 took their only break during that time, though Whibley says it was barely a break – really only the length of one album cycle, with a five-year gap between 2011’s Screaming Bloody Murder and 2016’s 13 Voices.
The lineup shifted, with first Baksh (in 2006) and then Jocz (in 2013) parting ways with the band, replaced by drummer Zummo and guitarist Thacker. Baksh later returned to the band in 2015, giving the band a three guitar attack and often freeing up Whibley to focus on singing and become a more theatrical frontman in live shows. They went independent, signing in 2016 to Hopeless Records then the semi-indie Rise Records for Heaven :X: Hell.
Though no longer in the cultural zeitgeist like they were in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the band kept releasing solid albums and playing for a consistently engaged audience of diehard fans.
Then eventually, things started to change.
“It felt like things started getting taken more seriously,” says Whibley.
After outlasting the hype and the antics, the health issues and the record label feeding frenzies, Sum 41 were finally being covered on their own merits, as songwriters and performers. When Sum 41 got called for interviews, journalists actually wanted to talk about the music.
Whibley, who had done some production work for Avril Lavigne and other artists, started getting asked to write songs for other artists – some smaller and some more household names (he won’t divulge who). When Covid lockdowns paused the band’s touring schedule, he decided to give it a shot. But he was surprised at what he was being recruited to do.
“Everyone was asking for pop-punk style songs,” he says. “I thought, pop-punk? Why does anyone want pop-punk? It’s been like 15 years since I’ve written a pop-punk song.”
As he started writing, it came surprisingly easy to him. One of the first songs he wrote was “Landmines,” which he says only took him about 10 minutes to write. He kept writing, and the songs kept coming.
“After about seven songs, I thought, you know what, I actually kind of like all these songs. I don’t know if people will see them as Sum 41 songs, but I don’t want to give them away either.”
He decided to turn them into a double album, with one side pop-punk and one side metal – the two sides of Sum 41. The album, Heaven :X: Hell, has been their most successful in years. After “Landmines” brought them back to No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart, they followed it with another No. 1 in “Dopamine.”
“We didn’t think we would chart on radio or even get played on a single station on this record,” Whibley says. “It’s pretty phenomenal. It feels like a miracle.”
Now, it’s starting to feel a lot like 2001. Pop-punkand emo are hot again, with bands like Blink-182 and Green Day headlining festivals and Warped Tour making a 30th anniversary resurgence featuring Sum 41’s friends and fellow Canadians Simple Plan. Festivals like When We Were Young and Canada’s All Your Friends Fest are drawing nostalgic 30 and 40-somethings back to the angsty music of their youth.
Mainstream pop and hip-hop acts like MGK and Willow Smith and Machine Gun Kelly have also ‘gone’ pop-punk, fusing throwback riffs and hooks with more modern sounds. There’s a newfound appetite for Sum 41 as a touring and recording project, but this is the moment they’re taking their final bow.
“It never felt to us like we were trying to do anything except for what we loved to do. And over time, I felt like we proved that,” Whibley says. “You know, we’re leaving the music business at the time when our genre is at a peak, because we just do what’s right for us.”
Sum 41 went from being labeled a flash-in-the-pan to becoming nearly three-decade veterans of rock. They witnessed multiple music industry shifts and grew old within a scene that many other bands flamed out in.
So what is their legacy? What do they want to be their epitaph?
Whibley sums it up with one word: honesty.
“Everything for us has just always been honest,” he says. “We never gave a f-ck about anything other than what we wanted to do. That’s who we are.”
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
Sum 41
Lane Dorsey/Billboard Canada
Boi-1da and Sarah Harmer are earning special honors.
The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) has announced both Canadian artists as special award recipients at this year’s Juno Awards.
Globally successful record producer Boi-1da (born Matthew Samuels) will receive the International Achievement Award during The Juno broadcast live on CBC on March 30. This award recognizes Canadian artists who have attained exemplary success on the world stage and it honors Canadian talent who have raised the profile of Canadian music around the world. Boi-1da is the first producer recipient of the award, and just the 10th in total. He won a Grammy for best rap song six years ago for co-writing Drake‘s hit “God’s Plan.” His 19 nominations include two nods for the coveted producer of the year, non-classical award, in 2019 and 2023.
Harmer will receive the 2025 Humanitarian Award at The Juno Awards Gala, on Saturday, March 29 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. This award recognizes Canadian artists or industry leaders whose work has positively enhanced the social culture of Canada. Harmer is being honored for eloquently using her voice to advocate for major environmental issues.
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“This year’s Juno Special Award Recipients exemplify the very best of what Canadian music has to offer,” Allan Reid, president and CEO of CARAS, said in a statement. “From creating superstar recordings to leading with compassion in their humanitarian efforts, we are excited to celebrate Boi-1da and Sarah Harmer for their work and profound impact.”
It is almost 20 years since Boi-1da’s first recognized production credit, for the track “Do What You Do” on Drake’s 2006 mixtape Room for Improvement. That launched a career that now boasts these impressive stats: 60+ platinum singles, 19 Grammy nominations (with one win), four RIAA-certified Diamond records and four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits as both a songwriter and producer – Eminem’s “Not Afraid,” Rihanna’s “Work” (featuring Drake), Drake’s “God’s Plan” and Drake’s “First Person Shooter” (featuring J. Cole).
Boi-1da has produced tracks for superstars including Rihanna, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Beyoncé, among others.
“It’s a huge honour,” he says. “Canada has always been home, and its music scene shaped me into the producer I am today. To be able to take that foundation and contribute to music on a global scale means everything. I hope this inspires the next generation of Canadian artists and producers to dream big and know that the world is listening.”
Singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer began her musical career with roots-rock bands The Saddletramps and Weeping Tile, prior to launching a solo career that took off with her 2000 sophomore album, You Were Here, which went platinum. Five more full-length albums have brought her both commercial success and international critical acclaim.
Harmer’s record as an environmental activist runs long and deep. In 2005, she co-founded citizen’s organization PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land) and supported it via a tour of the Niagara Escarpment region. A documentary DVD of this tour was released in 2006 as Escarpment Blues. Harmer also coauthored a book about the campaign, The Last Stand: A Journey Through the Ancient Cliff-Face Forest of the Niagara Escarpment.
She is credited with leading the successful effort to prevent an open-pit gravel mine in a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve on the Escarpment in Ontario and has been active in different community environmental groups, including the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition, and pipeline protests.
“I truly appreciate this honour,” says Harmer of this special award. “I accept on behalf of all the people who volunteer their time to speak up to protect land, water, and the web of life in their communities, and beyond. Musicians who use their platforms to amplify these struggles give a huge boost to the collective fight. Now more than ever we need to use our powers to build community and respect the natural world that underpins our lives.”
Harmer is no stranger to recognition at the Juno Awards, having taken home 10 trophies for her solo work.
This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
It’s official: Shaboozey has made history. His country hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has broken the new record for most weeks atop the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
On the chart dated Oct. 19, 2024, the song claims the top spot at No. 1 for an unprecedented 20th week, surpassing a record previously set in 2019 by Lil Nas X’s Billy Ray Cyrus-featuring “Old Town Road.”
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This is the first time a song has held the No. 1 spot for 20 weeks or more in the history of the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, which launched in 2007. “A Bar Song” first hit No. 1 in the week of May 11, 2024, and has actually spent 26 cumulative weeks on the chart. It was briefly knocked out of the top spot by Eminem’s “Houdini” and Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” but has otherwise dominated from summer to fall.
With “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” setting the new record, here’s an updated leaderboard for most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
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Most Weeks Spent at No. 1 on the Canadian Hot 100Weeks, Title, Artist Billing, Peak Date
20, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey, 5/11/202419, “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus, 4/20/201918, “As It Was,” Harry Styles, 4/16/202216, “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber, 5/27/201716, “Shape of You,” Ed Sheeran, 1/28/201716, “I Gotta Feeling,” The Black Eyed Peas, 7/4/200915, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus, 1/28/202315, “Uptown Funk!,” Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars, 1/10/2015
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is also making history on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, this week tying the record for the second-longest rookie reign at 14 weeks. But the Virginia artist’s song hit No. 1 in Canada first and has reigned for longer. He acknowledged that feat onstage at a headlining concert at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall last month, when Billboard Canada presented him a plaque for his No. 1 hit. “Y’all did it first!” he said triumphantly to the Canadian crowd.
In a Billboard cover story, Shaboozey talks about the whirlwind last few months. He’s been making music for a decade, but had a major breakthrough this year after appearing as a guest star on Beyoncé’s culture-shifting Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé and Shaboozey subsequently made history as the first two Black artists to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart consecutively with “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” but “A Bar Song” has surpassed the songs on Cowboy Carter for Canadian chart dominance.
Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” is also notably a country song from a Black artist who seamlessly shifts between sounds. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song” quotes from J-Kwon’s 2004 rap hit “Tipsy” and unites listeners of different genres in its themes of drinking through everyday economic hardships, getting heavy airplay on a variety of different radio formats in Canada. To put this historic feat into perspective, 20 weeks would also set the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, where Lil Nas X currently still reigns with 19 weeks. On that chart, which has existed for 66 years compared to Canada’s 17 years, only five songs have occupied the No. 1 spot for more than 15 weeks.
It’s difficult to predict if any songs have the power to knock Shaboozey out of No. 1 on the Canadian Hot 100 in the near future. Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” continues to hold down the No. 2 spot and did briefly surpass Shaboozey this summer. Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” has stalled at No. 3 for a number of weeks, while Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars’ duet “Die With a Smile” has continued a slow climb into the top 5 and this week sits at No. 4. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” currently holds No. 5, and previously peaked at No. 3.
So how many weeks will Shaboozey hold the No. 1 spot on the Canadian Hot 100? Only time will tell.
This story originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
There’s a brand new venue coming to Toronto, and it will be one of the biggest in the country. Rogers Stadium will open in summer 2025. At 50,000 capacity, it will also be one of the biggest venues built specifically for music. Despite the stadium designation, the venue will not be home to a sports […]
Billboard Canada Women in Music was a star-studded celebration.
Rising stars, Canadian legends — and some of their parents — were on hand to honour the myriad achievements of women on stage and behind the scenes in the first-ever edition of Billboard Women in Music in Canada featuring guest of honor Alanis Morissette.
The packed, pink-tinted room at DPRTMNT in downtown Toronto was full of some of the Canadian industry’s biggest names, from Apple Music host and Billboard Canada Power Player George Stroumboulopoulos, to pop-punk star Fefe Dobson and R&B singer Keshia Chanté, to FACTOR Canada CEO Meg Symsyk and many many more. The evening brought Canadian women in music together to connect with each other, celebrate their accomplishments, and build community together.
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Hosted by rapper and Polaris Music Prize winner Haviah Mighty, the evening saw moving performances and impactful speeches, and a moving speech from Alanis as she received the inaugural Billboard Canada Icon Award. Here are the best moments from Billboard Canada Women in Music.
Alanis Morissette Talks About What it Means to Be a Canadian Icon
The Billboard Canada Women in Music ceremony was graced by a true legend: Alanis Morissette received the Icon Award, honouring her as one of the country’s all-time greatest artists. Morissette celebrated femininity and emphasized its importance to people of all genders. “Matriarchy takes care of everybody,” she told the crowd, to a round of cheers.
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She was introduced by two Canadian stars — broadcaster George Stroumboulopoulos and Woman of the Year Charlotte Cardin, both of whom spoke to her massive influence. Stroumboulopoulos suggested reframing the notion of an icon: instead of measuring it by numbers, he said, we can understand an icon as someone who changed the game entirely for everyone who came after her — whether the next generation knows it or not. He remembered hosting a late night radio show in the ’90s listened to primarily by 18-24 year old boys, who would call in to wax poetic about their favourite parts of the video for Morissette’s hit “Ironic.”
Taking the stage to accept the award, Morissette — who has sold over 60 million records, with her breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill widely ranked as one of the best albums ever made — had her own thoughts to share on what it means to be an icon. She joked that even cereal boxes are called iconic these days. For her, though, an icon is someone who serves as a symbol of the safety to explore. Morissette reflected on how icons can inspire fans and listeners to probe the unconscious and to express themselves in new ways.
She also considered what it means to be a Canadian icon, enumerating some Canadian qualities that have helped her to succeed: curiosity and humility. Fame can be an isolating experience, Morissette shared — especially in the ’90s, when there wasn’t a big girl-squad mindset, but fame has allowed her to also support and connect with people.
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Charlotte Cardin Makes History as the First Canadian Billboard Woman of the Year
Charlotte Cardin had a year full of highlights, from crossing over into the U.S. charts to selling out arenas worldwide, but she has another big milestone to add to her resume: the first Billboard Woman of the Year in Canada.
Accepting the award from Billboard Canada national editor Richard Trapunski, the Montreal singer-songwriter acknowledged the importance of the occasion while sharing the credit. “This is such an incredible honor, but this award isn’t just mine,” she said. It was a team effort, reflecting many talented people around her — especially women.
She thanked the women in her life, including her manager Laurie Chouinard. Accepting her own award for Manager of the Year earlier in the night, Chouinard pointed out that Cult Nation, the label and management company she works with, is made up of mostly women. Cardin said the women in her life also includes her fans. She even dropped some stats. “75% of my audience is female,” she said. “I’m grateful for you all.”
Later, she got to thank a specific influence, introducing Icon of the Year Alanis Morissette. The normally cool and collected Cardin got a chance to gush, speaking for the awestruck women in the room. She said she doesn’t know Alanis, but feels like she does from her music, and called her a champion of self-esteem and acceptance for entire generations.
Cardin had one of the final performances of the night, too, hushing the room with a dramatic solo piano version of the closer from her breakout 2023 album 99 Nights, “Next To You.” She ended by blowing the audience a kiss, putting a stamp on a big night deserving of a historic achievement.
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Jully Black’s Powerful ‘Redemption Song’ Commands The Room
One of the first performances of the night was none other than Canada’s queen of R&B, Jully Black, who was also on hand to receive the Billboard Canada Impact Award. Black is a platinum-selling singer, but she opted to perform a moving cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” instead of one of her best-known hits like her top ten hit “Seven Day Fool.”
Accompanied by piano and guitar, Black had the chatty room in the palm of her hand, opening with a moment of silence that got everyone’s attention. “You’d think it would be obvious for me to come and do a ‘Seven Day Fool’,” she told the audience. “But where I’m at in my life, it’s about redemption.” She led a sing-a-long of “This Little Light” before going into the classic Marley song about bondage and freedom, changing some of the words. “How long will they kill our women?” Black sang, a resonant question during a truly impactful performance.
After her show-stopping performance, Jully Black returned to the stage to receive the Impact Award, honouring the massive mark she’s left on Canada’s music industry and beyond. A renaissance woman, Black has a multi-faceted career in music, acting, radio, fitness and much more, and she’s shaped national conversations about racism and colonialism.
Accepting the award, she reflected on a time before she was at the forefront of Canadian media, when her main focus was bringing her childhood cabbage patch doll to her grade two show and tell. The cabbage patch doll, she laughed, melted in the sun — so her teacher, Miss Simon, invited Black to sing, instead.
“So I’m saying her name,” Black shared, “Miss Simon — thank you.” She went on to name a long list of women integral to her journey, including Warner Chappell Music Canada’s Vivian Barclay, FACTOR’s Meg Symsyk, and former MuchMusic host Denise Donlon. It was a reminder that for every woman on stage at the event, there’s many more who helped her get there.
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Jessie Reyez Celebrates Her Trailblazer Award — And Her Mom’s Birthday
Singer Jessie Reyez took home the inaugural Trailblazer Award, recognizing her commitment to artistry and the ways she’s used her platform to promote social causes throughout her career, from speaking out about sexist gatekeeping in the industry to shouting out Black Lives Matter from the CN Tower.
She thanked her parents as she received the award, highlighting her mom in particular, who was celebrating her birthday from the Billboard Canada Women in Music VIP Booth. Reyez reflected on how growing up, her mom always encouraged her to live her truth, whether or not it conformed to gender norms. “I was given an open canvas, and despite people judging her mothering style, she still let me be free,” she said.
She also offered a little advice for people who might be afraid about standing up for a cause: “I hope you f—ing do it anyway.”
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Star Siblings Haviah and Omega Mighty Double the Fun
It’s no easy task to follow Alanis Morissette, but sisters Haviah and Omega Mighty rose to the occasion, closing out the evening after Morissette received her Icon Award. Haviah also served as the evening’s co-host alongside Billboard Canada CEO Amanda Dorenberg and CCO Elizabeth Crisante, bringing the energy throughout the night, but she had more than enough leftover for a medley with her sister Omega.
Haviah kicked off the set with her 2023 single “Trendsetter” before bringing up Omega for a rendition of their collab track “Zoom Zoom.” The two fed easily off of each other’s vibes, bouncing around the stage and getting the crowd dancing. “We’re gonna finish it up by maximizing the fun,” Haviah told the room, before launching into her brand new single “Double The Fun,” with a booming beat. The sisters are more than capable of getting serious when the moment calls for it — in our Spotlight Sessions, they share wisdom about their journeys in the industry — but they also know how to get the party started, and how to bring an event home.
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Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Quotes the Queens
Author, mental health advocate and political figure Sophie Grégoire Trudeau helped kick off the event by joking that her two kids don’t normally think of her as cool — but at an event like this, she definitely felt cool.
Grégoire Trudeau paid tribute to the event’s honourees by quoting some of their most inspiring lyrics, stitching together quotes from Alanis, Jully Black, Haviah Mighty and more into a free-form spoken word poem. This excerpt alone juxtaposes Tia Wood, LU KALA and Charlotte Cardin:
“We shed with the sea
Sun shining on our peace
What doesn’t kill you makes you hotter now
A little wilder when the lights go out
See the sun leading us
Hear the drum beating us
We will not live a meaningless life”
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LU KALA’s Rising Star Shines Bright
Pop singer LU KALA has been making waves with her infectious charisma and empowering anthems like “Pretty Girl Era,” making her this year’s Billboard Canada Rising Star. To celebrate the award she performed a medley, showing off the chops that have helped bring her to international attention.
Earlier this summer, LU performed a more stripped-back set for the Billboard Canada and iHeartRadio Spotlight Session, but her Women in Music set was a full-on, high-energy affair. LU strutted on stage accompanied by keys, guitar and her very own back-up dancers.She sang a brief rendition of her upcoming single “Criminal” before segueing into the breakup bop “Hotter Now,” with her dancers fanning themselves and stomping the stage to emphasize key lyrics. It was an affirmation that this diva is ready for her spotlight.
Intimate Performances From Up-and-Comers and Longtime Favorites
The celebration also highlighted some of Canada’s most exciting up-and-coming artists, including Alberta country singer Hailey Benedict as well as soulful Plains Cree and Salish singer Tia Wood.
Benedict took the stage in a shining silver outfit with just her acoustic guitar, performing an unreleased song, “Things My Mama Says,” dedicated to her mom. Benedict, who won the SiriusXM 2023 Top of the Country competition and has built an impressive online following, also revealed the exciting announcement that she’s signed a record deal with Nashville’s Big Loud and their Canadian imprint, Local Hay.
Plains Cree and Coast Salish singer Tia Wood performed twice at the event, opening the evening and returning later with a delicate, dynamic rendition of her song “Dirt Roads.” Wood was vulnerable with the crowd as she spoke about moving to L.A. and feeling lonely, losing access to her culture and community. Wood has made a name for herself as an artist to watch, and she brought her precise vocal trills and ability for raw connection to the Billboard Canada Women in Music stage.
There was room for longtime favourites with new energy, too. Anjulie, who first charted in 2009, has made a new name for herself as an industry player in L.A., collaborating with everyone from Zedd to Nicki Minaj. At the celebratory event, she gave a short and sweet performance with two interpretative dancers behind her.
Moments of Community Building Across the Music Industry
Billboard Canada Women in Music was about more than just artists — it was about recognizing talent across sectors of the industry and building community across the whole music landscape. The list of talented women in the room was incredibly diverse — not just in terms of genre, but in ways they shape the industry.
Sonali Singh won Global Manager of the Year, flying in from India to accept. She’s one of the first female managers in India, she said, and acknowledged she couldn’t have done it without the “global artist of the decade” Diljit Dosanjh. Together, the two made history this year, putting on the biggest Punjabi concert outside of India in Vancouver and repeating it with a stadium show in Toronto.
Meg Symsyk, CEO of FACTOR, and Amy Eligh, Director of Publishing & Licensing of Arts & Crafts, both took the stage and recognized the importance of royalties and rights for songwriters. Lola Plaku, SVP, IGA Urban Marketing & Strategy at Interscope, Geffen and A&M and founder of Girl Connected, talked about the importance of mentorship. The powerful women in the room extended beyond music — Joanna Griffiths, CEO of underwear company Knix Wear, introduced Jully Black while remembering when she worked as Black’s publicist, helping Black to make her mark in the industry.
That just scratched the surface of the powerful and influential women at the event, who connected and celebrated each other throughout the night.
This story originally appeared in Billboard Canada.