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.
A new Canadian Broadcast Corporation investigation calls into question the Indigenous identity of singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. It’s already opened up a broad conversation about identity and appropriation.
The bombshell investigation aired Friday (Oct. 27) on the YouTube channel of the program The Fifth Estate and will be available to stream on CBC Gem starting at 9 p.m. tonight.
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Sainte-Marie is one of Canada’s most decorated musicians. The artist and activist has won the Polaris Music Prize, multiple Juno Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and is the recipient of the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.
She was named Billboard’s Best New Artist in 1964. She’s been recognized as a champion of Indigenous rights on an international level, from the stage to Sesame Street, where she educated children about Indigenous culture starting in the mid-1970s.
The documentary, however, says some of Sainte-Marie’s family members believe her claim to Indigenous heritage “is built on an elaborate fabrication.”
Sainte-Marie has previously said that she was adopted by her parents, Italian-Americans Albert and Winnifred Santamaria, and grew up in the predominantly white Christian suburb of Wakefield, Massachusetts. Later, as a young adult, she was adopted by Emile Piapot and Clara Starblanket Piapot of the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan in accordance with Cree law and customs.
She has mentioned that her mother, who she has said was part Mi’kmaq herself, told her that she was Indigenous and that there was no documentation of her birth. In a 2018 interview on CBC’s Q, she attributed this to the Sixties Scoop, a time in Canadian history when Indigenous children were removed from their homes and put up for adoption.
The documentary, which was made without participation of Sainte-Marie herself, features an interview with her younger cousin Bruce Santamaria, who disputes her claim of adoption. It also features quotes from other family members, including references to alleged sexual abuse. The investigation hinges on her birth certificate, which CBC obtained, which lists her presumed adopted parents as her birth parents and her race as white.
“I can say absolutely with 100% certainty that this is the original birth certificate. Beverly Jean Santamaria [later nicknamed Buffy] was born in Stoneham, Mass., at New England Sanatorium and Hospital on Feb. 20, 1941,” says Maria Sagarino, the town clerk in Stoneham.
Sainte-Marie’s lawyer contends that children adopted in Massachusetts were commonly issued new birth certificates with their adopted parents’ names (which the clerk denies).
Ahead of the investigation, Sainte-Marie put out a video in which she affirms herself as “a proud member of the Native community with deep roots in Canada.” She also put out a written statement entitled “My Truth As I Know It.”
“It is with great sadness, and a heavy heart, that I am forced to respond to deeply hurtful allegations that I expect will be reported in the media soon,” the statement reads. “Last month, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation contacted me to question my identity and the sexual assault I experienced as a child. To relive those times, and revisit questions I made peace with decades ago, has been beyond traumatic.”
“I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family.” In her statement, Sainte-Marie says she was told by her mother while growing up that she was adopted, and that later in life her mother told Sainte-Marie she may have been “born on the wrong side of the blanket,” a phrase typically used to indicate a child born to unmarried parents.
“For a long time, I tried to discover information about my background,” Sainte-Marie says. “Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about, is that I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know.”
My Truth As I know it – Buffy pic.twitter.com/CZjBMOcKP9
— Buffy Sainte-Marie (@BuffySteMarie) October 26, 2023
CBC contextualizes the investigation within a recent series of revelations around high-profile figures whose claims of Indigenous identity have been disputed, including filmmaker Michelle Latimer and author Joseph Boyden and a number of academics.
These thorny cases, often called “Pretendians,” have initiated conversations around who gets to claim Indigeneity and for what end – often to claim benefits or opportunities or shield themselves from criticism. Some Indigenous commentators are wondering whether Sainte-Marie meets the criteria to warrant this kind of scrutiny, and who should get to do it.
By contrast here’s the CBC’s test for when to tell a Pretendian story, and it’s on way less solid ground. It basically says if you are any noteworthy Native person, you meet the bar for CBC digging into your genealogy. The ‘benefits’ test in the BSM case seems very subjective. https://t.co/CnPm6Rav8u pic.twitter.com/lsf8rnV2Nx
— Robert Jago (@rjjago) October 27, 2023
Two members of the Piapot family also released a statement, affirming their kinship with Sainte-Marie.
“We grew up knowing that Buffy and our grandparents adopted each other and how deeply committed and loving they were to one another,” the statement from Debra and Ntawnis Piapot says. “Buffy is our family. We chose her and she chose us.”
“No one, including Canada and its governments, the Indian Act, institutions, media or any person anywhere can deny our family’s inherent right to determine who is a member of our family and community,” the family states.
The statement emphasizes the importance of Indigenous sovereignty in determining who can claim Indigenous identity. “Join us in protecting our right to uphold who we claim as family through our traditions and natural laws.”
Responses on X have pointed out that using government records to determine Indigenous identity can be fraught. In Canada, the Indian Act has historically been used to exclude people with clear Indigenous heritage from achieving “Indian Status” under Canadian law.
The one thing I’ll say about the Buffy Sainte-Marie thing is that my grandfather was listed as “white” on my mother’s birth certificate but as “Indian” on his WW2 draft card and he was born on Cattaragus rez and he looked like this, so regardless of anything, records are complex pic.twitter.com/vLM161126C
— Kristin Chirico (@KristinChirico) October 27, 2023
Many commentators have expressed that the investigation is painful for Indigenous communities.
We are now reviewing the material that CBC released on Buffy Sainte-Marie. Like all Indigenous peoples across the country we are slowly processing the information. Our hearts go out to all those who feel pain today. We will release a statement in the coming days.
— Indigenous Women’s Collective (@IndigenousWome4) October 27, 2023
This is all so harmful, hurts our communities, our aunties, our grandmas who adored her music and those who actually lived through the Scoop, foster system and adoption. Everyone will have their own feelings reading this. Please take care while doing so: https://t.co/cgEJXAYbHy
— Tanya Talaga (@TanyaTalaga) October 27, 2023
Others are asking who the investigation serves.
Who is served by this bomb. That’s the only question worth asking. Because it isn’t us. It isn’t any of us. But it’s our communities that are going to suffer and struggle long after this story fades. https://t.co/y5TQAMrxon
— daanis (@gindaanis) October 27, 2023
In the CBC investigation, Native studies professor Kim TallBear says she hopes the investigation will be a turning point when it comes to the phenomenon of white settlers claiming Indigenous heritage.
“This one should make it obvious that we have a real problem we have to address and that organizations and institutions and governments need to get on board and figure out how to stop this problem,” she said.
“And if it doesn’t happen after this case, then I don’t know where we go.”
Buffy Sainte-Marie, who is 82, retired from touring earlier this year for health reasons.
This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
On this day in 2017, Gord Downie died at the age of 53. The frontman for the iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip left an undeniable mark on the country’s cultural landscape and its charts. In the years since, his legacy has been dissected and cemented, with tributes coming in from Drake to Justin Trudeau. He was a champion of Indigenous reconciliation, a rock and roll poet, one of the continent’s best performers. He was a lot of things at once.
For Gord Downie’s daughter Willo Downie, it’s been difficult to grapple with the public perception of her father — who he was to the country and who he was to her. Six years since we lost him, she feels ready to reflect on the lessons he taught her and how it squares with the man the world knew through his music and writing. Now that she’s establishing her own artistic career as a visual artist, Willo Downie feels grateful for the gift he gave her: a life of art, and of art as a way of life. — Billboard Canada digital editor Richard Trapunski
Here is Willo Downie’s remembrance of Gord Downie for Billboard Canada:
To live is to create, and what a gift that is.
The greatest gift we can give in thanks for our life is creation.
I know and feel this deeply. My dad taught me.
Six years after his death, I still grapple with the public’s perception of who my dad was. It often feels surreal and overwhelming to reconcile. To me, for so long, he was “just” my dad. King of my heart, as a young girl.
But Gord Downie threw himself earnestly into each of the roles he filled — and they were many, beyond that of being a truly amazing father.
I can recognize that more deeply as each year goes by and I grow older myself. My understanding of his legacy is a tapestry that will continue to weave itself into completion, forever.
For as long as I can remember, my dad kept his public life very separate from his private life. His family, of course, fell under the arm of “private.” I will endeavour to respect that boundary even now, while I dive into what I consider to be a celebration of the beautiful life he led, here, in this piece.
Dad had cultivated his creativity within and around him until it had become the very foundation of his being by the time he turned thirty. And then he became a father. It’s one of my greatest points of pride — to have come from and been raised by a man who embodied, fully, what it meant to create one’s own life as though it were a work of art.
Your frame of mind. Your inner world. Your surroundings. Your relationships. Your work. It was all art to him — to be molded and shaped with diligence and intention.
The notion that we, as humans, are inherently creative beings permeated most decisions made and the interests us kids pursued… Music, painting and sculpture, food, dance, sports. Everything had an inherent beauty to it, in our parents’ eyes. Art was a vessel that could hold history, the opportunity for activism, a way to process pain and a way to celebrate joy.
I’ll never forget my school’s grade 9 “Take Your Kid To Work Day.” Dad took me to the Art Gallery of Ontario. We spent the entire day there, absorbing each of the collections and exhibits, together. He taught me a lot about the Group of Seven that day. Emily Carr, too.
I try to retrieve the reasoning behind that choice of his sometimes… of why he’d choose the AGO, of all places. In hindsight, I think he was trying to relay the message that his “career” was so much more to him than just one discipline, one art form. It was a way of life — the choice to move through the world in pursuit of beauty and truth. He was setting that example for me, too.
Fast forward a few years, and I can remember a specific conversation with my dad. I was choosing what to do after high school.
“Willo, what makes you happy?”
“A lot of things, dad…”
“What can’t you live without?”
“I need to paint”
“Then do that”
Then the doubt set in, and he responded, “Willo, choose, and you’ll make a way.”
That last line always stuck with me. This guy never minced his words. His choice to say “you’ll make a way” could very well have been “you’ll find a way” or, “the way will make itself known to you.” But he had chosen to try to empower me instead, to create the life and career I so desperately wanted — needed — in order to feel complete.
He was a man who continually chose to try, try, and try again. His dedication and discipline in his work got him to a place from which he was able to create with such output and raw, undiluted honesty. It was awe-invoking. Truly. The guy didn’t have an “off-switch.” He wouldn’t dare tamp down his life force — his will to create or advocate for others — for anything.
And so, his legacy: He lived to create, and he created, in pursuit of a loving, full life.
What an example to have set.
Here is a painting by Willo Downie with Gord Downie’s handwriting superimposed on top:
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This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
Toronto musician Mustafa has posted an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pleading with him to support the people of Palestine and “defy this active genocide and imprisonment that is levelling Gaza.” This comes after Israel declared a state of war against Hamas on Oct. 9.
Mustafa, then going by Mustafa The Poet, met the prime minister at a Black liberation event and eventually served as the Ontario representative in Trudeau’s youth council 10 years ago. Calling Trudeau his “old acquaintance,” Mustafa asks him to fight for the lives of Palestinian civilians, in particular the women and children, affected by Israel’s offensive.
The artist highlights Canada’s own past with colonial oppression. Mustafa asks Trudeau to join past leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu on “the right side of history in the liberation of Palestine.”
My (now) open letter to an old acquaintance; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau- on Palestine, genocide, & our indigenous population pic.twitter.com/7Nqhemf7Up
— Mustafa (@MustafaThePoet) October 16, 2023
Read Mustafa’s full letter below:
Justin Trudeau,
We met a decade ago, to jog your memory we participated in an event for black liberation together before you were the prime minister of Canada.
When you were appointed prime minister, I served on the first ever youth council as your Ontario rep., we travelled this endless country together in search of some semblance of democracy.. You have your flaws in leadership, but in our time together I sensed a heart in you.
I know you have a political & economic responsibility to Israel. I remember our time in Calgary was clipped because you had to immediately fly to Tel Aviv for the funeral of war criminal Ariel Sharon. I knew and you knew there was no say in the matter of your attendance for this man you did not know.
I’m asking you to use the same tongue that defended Israel & condemned Hamas to defy this active genocide and imprisonment that is levelling Gaza, that is burying & disfiguring children and women.
I’m asking you to use our people’s tax dollars that have been exhausted to support the most funded & violent state in the world to also protect the relentlessly tormented people of Palestine.
So much of our time together was about undoing the iniquities that were done to our Indigenous population, a hopeless pursuit for this already stolen land — for the decades and decades of ethnic cleansing that they’re still recovering from, how could we ever undo what can’t be forgiven or rectified?
A century from now, when they contemplate your legacy Prime Minister, will you be recalled as a custodian of this unforgivable genocide, this ethnic cleansing, this stolen land? Your battle here in Canada will have been for nothing.
Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, join these respected leaders on the right side of history in the liberation of Palestine.
Solidarity with the oppressed and the erased,
Mustafa Ahmed,
Regent Park, Toronto
Hours after Mustafa posted his letter on X, an air raid struck a Gaza hospital, killing at least 500 people. This prompted Trudeau to tweet about the tragedy, stating accountability must be held for those responsible.
I’m horrified by the loss of life at Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones. It is imperative that innocent civilians be protected and international law upheld. Together, we must determine what happened. There must be accountability.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 18, 2023
Mustafa has also released the first song, “Name of God” from of his upcoming full-length album debut. A devout Muslim himself, Mustafa reflects on the loss of his brother and his relationship with God.
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In true Mustafa fashion, this single also came with a heartfelt message in his own words:
I never felt like the Nubian prince my father seen in me through his tinted lens. I try their dance, their prayer- I always fall short.
& Gods name wasn’t always related to beauty for me, but to hopelessness, this Islam we share and Allah we call for while witnessing a constant violence that continues to
bind us, I don’t think I ever felt completely Muslim among other Muslims,
All these sub-beliefs like borders. My aunts in all their wisdom and narrowness-one Sufi spinning into remembrance, one refuting the taking of a photograph.
When my big brother was killed in what will always feel like yesterday, knowing the suspected murderer was someone he held as a friend, someone he prayed with- it led me to believe that maybe his love was his end? Maybe where there is no love, parting from love keeps us alive? Maybe ending in love is the only way to actually begin? I don’t know.
The only clear memory from the days of his death were my parents reciting in unison, “oh Allah, we accept his passing, we accept what you ordained.”
I’m desperate to love God like them.
Our faith and our hearts are too often our demise- I know a field of young niggas dreaming that can testify to this. For better or worse we’ll uncover every bone beneath our hollow laughter, our confused affection; maybe its revealed in our final gasp for meaning.
Until then.
Bismillah, In the Name of God, 10.17.23
Mustafa recently made an appearance during the Daniel Caesar Toronto show on Oct.13. Alongside Charlotte Day Wilson and Caesar, Mustafa performed “Old Man’ by Neil Young in an unconventional encore broadcast live from the green room at Scotiabank Arena.
This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
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