State Champ Radio Canada
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Now that 2023 has come to a close and the year-end charts have been digested, it’s time to look ahead. 2024 is already looking to be a big year for music in Canada.
Upcoming Canadian album releases include a double album from long-running pop-punk band Sum 41, a new album from long-running rock band Mother Mother that follows the huge TikTok resurgence of their older song “Hayloft,” plus new ones from well-established bands like The Strumbellas, Chromeo, off-kilter pop artist Allie X, country singer Corb Lund and more. There are also plenty of albums from up-and-coming artists to keep an eye on.
Promising B.C. rapper Boslen’s Conversations Over Dinner project is tentatively scheduled for March. Singer/poet Mustafa announced his debut album is coming this year. Montreal rapper Lou Phelps announced his forthcoming album Chélbé, executive-produced by Kaytranada. Speaking of that in-demand Montreal producer, he closed out 2023 with a pair of new solo songs following his collaborative album as Kaytraminé, which seem to signify something new on the horizon.
Indigenous hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids could have a big breakout year coming. They signed to Sony Music Canada last year and announced their major label debut will come out this summer. And after appearing on Billboard Canada’s Punjabi Wave cover, Jonita Gandhi has her first EP on 91 North Records set to release in February.
Some major tours are hitting Canada in 2024 as well.
Diljit Dosanjh is set to play the biggest Punjabi concert outside of India at Vancouver’s BC Place in April. That Vancouver venue is surprisingly the only Canadian host for the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds tour. And aside from the six dates at Toronto’s stadium Rogers Centre, Vancouver will get the only Canadian dates on Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour.
Pop-punk has reached its stadium era. Veterans Blink-182 and Green Day will both play Toronto’s Rogers Centre (home of the Blue Jays) this summer. Green Day is also joining SZA and Noah Kahan as headliners for Montreal’s biggest music festival Osheaga.
Head to ca.billboard.com for a full list.
Two Canadian Cities Establish Music Strategies
Canadian cities are getting strategic when it comes to promoting and supporting their music scenes.
Following the lead of its neighbour Toronto, Kingston, Ontario is moving forward with a music strategy and establishing an official music office. The Kingston city council approved $200,000 in funding from the capital budget in a meeting just before Christmas. The funding will establish the music office and support music programming in the city for the year. The city will also hire and appoint a music officer in charge of the office.
“The strategy hopes to improve living and working conditions for musicians and industry workers while also better leveraging Kingston’s existing music scene as a piece of the city’s tourism tapestry,” reports Yahoo’s Local Journalism Initiative.
Kingston is the 12th most populous city in Ontario but has a notable music history. It’s home to Queen’s University, which has made it a popular location for student bars and student bands. It’s also famously the city that spawned The Tragically Hip, one of Canada’s most beloved bands. Establishing a music strategy codifies music as a major identity for the city and helps it market its music scene while supporting the artists and infrastructure of those who play there.
Vancouver also has a music strategy and has just appointed a music task force to help the city implement it.
A press release explains that the task force will help the City “celebrate the sound of Vancouver and the music of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.” It will also aim to attract and retain artists, businesses, tourism and events that strengthen the local economy.
The city aims to build a music sector that thrives year-round. – Richard Trapunski & Kerry Doole
Rising TikTok Star Alexander Stewart Makes His Billboard Canadian Hot 100 Debut
Canadian singer-songwriter Alexander Stewart is starting 2024 off with a bang, making his debut on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 with the explosive “i wish you cheated,” off of his new EP, if you only knew. The lovelorn single arrives on the Jan. 6 chart at No. 100 after gathering steam since Stewart’s October performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Starting off with mournful piano and Stewart’s voice, the song has a strong premise: Stewart wishes his ex had cheated on him so that he could have clarity and a simple justification for feeling angry and upset. The piano cuts out at the end of the chorus as Stewart asks: “how do I move on / when you did nothing wrong?” Then, Stewart ramps up the energy with backup vocals, dropouts and a theatricality that calls to mind Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.”
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The Toronto-born musician is now based in L.A. and has built up an impressive online fanbase, with six million followers on TikTok and 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube. He released if you only knew with entertainment company FAE, and according to a press release the initial TikTok campaign for “i wish you cheated” amassed more than 43 million views. Stewart was the second-most popular artist on TikTok in Canada in 2023, behind Lauren Spencer Smith, who charted on the Billboard Hot 100 last year with “Last Christmas.”
This is Stewart’s first time on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, and he could be poised to climb higher if he can gather momentum as holiday music drops off the charts in the coming weeks. The top 10 of this week’s Billboard Canadian Hot 100 are all holiday songs. – Rosie Long Decter
Each week we’ll be sharing the most important news from the north with Canada’s top music industry stories, supplied by our colleagues at Billboard Canada.
For more Canadian music coverage visit ca.billboard.com.
Longtime Host and DJ George Stroumboulopoulos Appointed to the Order of Canada
Governor General Mary Simon named 78 new appointments to the Order of Canada on Thursday to recognize “people across all sectors of society who have made extraordinary and sustained contributions to our nation.” This year’s honourees include journalists, politicians, doctors and more, plus prominent figures from music and arts.
One name that stands out is George Stroumboulopoulos. Strombo, as he’s often known, has been one of the most recognizable people in music media for more than two decades.
Stroumboulopoulos has long been a household name in Canada, with some brief crossover moments in the U.S., including a short-lived talk show on CNN and an ABC reality competition show called The One: Making a Music Star.
He first rose to prominence as a VJ on TV music station MuchMusic in the early 2000s and has since hosted a variety of shows on CBC, Rogers and Apple Music. He even dabbled in sports as the host of Hockey Night In Canada from 2014-2016. After Apple Music picked up his House of Strombo concert series in 2017, he became a host and curator on Apple Music Hits when it launched in 2020 as part of Apple Music Radio and has become a tastemaker on the platform. His Up Next Canada series has recently included rising musicians like Punjabi-Canadian producer Ikky and country singer-songwriter Owen Riegling.
“With very rare exceptions, I have been 100% myself the whole way,” he recently told Canadian Press. READ MORE
— Richard Trapunski
The Biggest Homegrown Hits On the Year-End Billboard Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 tallies the biggest songs in Canada each week (whether or not they’re by Canadian artists). This year, the top 10 spots on the year-end Canadian Hot 100 are all dominated by international acts — with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” claiming honours as the biggest songs of the year — but Canadians made a strong showing on the rest of the top 100.
The year-end chart takes into account chart performance throughout the year, with longevity sometimes counting for more than high placement and measuring charts dated Nov, 19, 2022, to Oct 21, 2023 — which explains why a big song like Tate McRae’s December chart-topper “greedy” got left off.
But Canadian artists still showed up in prominent spots on the Year-End Chart, even beyond the usual high spots for Drake and The Weeknd.
At No. 23 is Ottawa singer Talk’s soulful ballad “Runaway To Mars,” which was released in 2021 but went viral on TikTok this year, shooting it up the charts. It hit No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in January 2023.
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Preston Pablo from Timmins, Ontario, linked up with Quebec production duo Banx + Ranx on melancholy dance-pop track “Flowers Need Rain,” which landed at No. 26.
At No. 29, Quebec pop sensation Charlotte Cardin’s “Confetti” was a major Canadian success this year. The song has spent 34 weeks on the Canadian Hot 100, peaking at No. 10. A hit in both Canada and across Europe, the catchy pop tune is in English but also exists in a bilingual English/French version.
Other hits by Canadian artists in the top 100 include Tiësto’s Tate McRae-featuring “10:35,” “If Anything’s Left” by Ottawa pop singer Jamie Fine, “Next To You” by Canadian-born production duo Loud Luxury, “Whitney” by up-and-coming Montreal singer Rêve and more. READ MORE
— Rosie Long Decter
Music Regulation and AI high on Music Association Agendas for 2024
Billboard Canada asked a number of national music industry association leaders to provide their own unique perspective on 2023 and the year ahead.
“The passing of C-11 (the Online Streaming Act) in 2023 represents both an accomplishment and a challenge,” says Andrew Cash, president of the Canadian Independent Music Association. “Bringing some of the largest, most powerful corporations in the history of capitalism under regulation in Canada is an important step. It has also kick-started a long overdue and much-needed conversation about Canadian content policy in the age of the internet. Even that sentence sounds dated!“2024 should answer some big questions with regards to C-11– the most pressing being: which platforms will be included in regulations currently being considered before the CRTC, how much will these platforms be required to contribute to the Canadian music sector, and where this contribution will go?”
According to Amy Jeninga, president of the Canadian Country Music Association, 2023 has been a big year for Canadian country music.
“The genre continued to outpace industry growth in countries around the world, claiming a bigger piece of the cultural pie than in recent years, including here at home, where Canada saw a 32% growth in on-demand audio and video streams in Q3, outpacing the overall industry growth of 18%,” she says. “We continue to celebrate a growing community and fanbase set to engage and continue propelling the genre forward in 2024.”
For Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada, artificial intelligence is high on the agenda for 2024.
“This past year saw rapid advancements in artificial intelligence that can unlock an exciting new era for creativity and content — but which also pose a serious threat to the creative industries and artists if not regulated,” he says. “It’s never been more critical that our copyright and legal frameworks remain strong in the face of bad actors who want to exploit artists’ work, voice and image without their consent, credit or compensation…We’re excited to work with the government and our creative industry peers in 2024 to help set policies that encourage the ethical development of this exciting new marketplace.”
Heads of the Canadian Independent Music Association, Canadian Live Music Association, SOCAN and Music Publishers Canada, meanwhile, highlight modernized rights management, arts funding and increased promotion of Canadian artists in both recorded music and on the live stage. READ MORE
— David Farrell
Each week we’ll be sharing the most important news from the north with Canada’s top music industry stories, supplied by our colleagues at Billboard Canada.
For more Canadian music coverage visit ca.billboard.com.
Bryan Adams Splits With Longtime Manager
After a memorable handshake agreement in Vancouver 44 years ago, manager Bruce Allen and client Bryan Adams have broken up. As confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the situation, Adams is now self-managing his career.
Bruce Allen
There has been no public announcement of the falling-out, but Bruce Allen Talent’s website no longer lists Adams as a client, and the “Run to You” rocker’s website similarly strikes any mention of Allen as his manager. Insiders say that Adams, short-term, is handling his own affairs.
Allen, now 78, has earned his mostly Canadian client list untold millions of dollars. Among them include some household names such as Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Loverboy and, more recently, Michael Bublé and Jann Arden.
The breach in the handshake agreement is believed to be over artistic direction, in particular Adams’ insistence on investing heavily in new music and videos in recent years. READ MORE
Spotify’s Global Job Cuts Hit Canada
On Dec. 4, Spotify announced it would be slashing its global workforce by 17%. Billboard Canada has learned that Nathan Wiszniak, Head of Artist & Label Partnerships at Spotify Canada, was among those laid off.
At the time of Spotify’s announcement, just a few days after unveiling its popular Spotify Wrapped campaign, it was unclear how many of the roughly 1,500 jobs cut would come from Canada. A spokesperson from Spotify Canada declined to share, but confirmed that Wiszniak was part of the layoffs.
Wiszniak has worked at Spotify Canada for nine years and was one of the founding members when the music streaming company expanded to Canada in 2014. In his role in Music Partnerships, he worked to promote Canadian music and artists and give them a global platform on Spotify.
“From the outset, my mission was to establish and promote an ecosystem that would propel the growth of our industry,” Wiszniak writes in an email to Billboard Canada.
Asked about his accomplishments, he highlights his role in championing Punjabi-Canadian artists like Ikky, Karan Aujla and AP Dhillon (all three appeared on Billboard Canada’s inaugural Punjabi Wave cover) and contributing to their exponential growth and in nurturing the early careers of breakout Canadian artists like Jessie Reyez, Daniel Caesar and Charlotte Cardin.
In the last two years however, he says, Wiszniak’s primary role has been “educating government stakeholders about the intricacies of streaming…during a regulatory phase that occurs once in a generation.” He’s likely referring to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which will update Canada’s media policy for the first time in decades. Spotify is at the heart of that bill’s implementation, which could require the company to make more direct and mandatory financial contributions to the Canadian music industry via government regulations.
On Nov. 30, just a few days before the layoff announcement, Wiszniak spoke at the Online Streaming Act hearings, arguing that “imposing initial base contributions on platforms before defining critical elements of the broadcast policy is premature, and risks overlooking the many ways that Spotify already contributes to and supports Canadian and Indigenous artists.” READ MORE
New IFPI Report Reveals Canadian Distrust of AI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released a new report detailing how music fans all over the world listen to music, with specific stats for participating countries. Music Canada has shared new data about Canadian listening habits from the report.
Most notably, it includes some vital Canadian perspectives on one of this year’s hot-button topics in the music industry: artificial intelligence. Many are not in favour, at least not of the wild west version of AI that has flooded the internet this year. 76% of Canadians believe that AI shouldn’t be employed to impersonate or clone a musician without their approval.
Even more Canadians — 85% — believe that music created solely using AI should be labelled as AI-generated, and also that human musicians are an essential part of music creation. The data indicates that in ongoing debates over the role of AI in music, Canadian consumers could support certain amounts of regulation and protections for artists.
AI music is already flooding streaming services, and Spotify allegedly removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs from its platform earlier this year, to prevent those songs from acquiring fake streams and inflated royalties. Meanwhile, TikTok user @ghostwriter977 released an AI-created fake Drake and The Weeknd song earlier this year, gathering millions of streams before the song was taken off streaming platforms. According to the IFPI report, 77% of Canadians agree that AI systems should list which music has been used to train their tools.
The report included over 43,000 respondents from 26 countries, and concludes that globally, we’re listening to more music in more ways than ever. People around the world listen to an average of 20.7 hours of music per week — up from 20.1 hours in 2022 — and the use of paid streaming platforms is rising. For the 16-24 demographic, though, short-form videos are the top method of music listening, not audio streaming services.
On average, Canadians use 7.2 different methods to encounter music and hop between eight different genres. Half of Canadians subscribe to audio streaming services, while a quarter access music through unlicensed methods. In addition to how we listen to music, the report also highlights what music does for us: 83% of Canadians say that music is important to their mental health. READ MORE
Last Week’s Headlines: Top TikTok Tracks, Montreal’s Music and Noise Laws
Each week we’ll be sharing the most important news from the north with Canada’s top music industry stories, supplied by our colleagues at Billboard Canada.
For more Canadian music coverage visit ca.billboard.com.
PARTYNEXTDOOR’s Decade-Old Track Tops Canada’s TikTok Year-End
Every year, TikTok takes a look back at the songs and creators that made a mark on the year. At times, it feels like an alternate dimension.
The most popular TikTok song in Canada this year belonged to PARTYNEXTDOOR – no doubt a major hip-hop and R&B artist. However, the version of the Canadian star’s 2014 song “Her Way” that tops the list is not the original, but a sped-up version attached to a dance challenge.
“The song’s accelerated tempo seemed to resonate perfectly with the fast-paced, dynamic nature of TikTok,” says Kat Kernaghan, Head of TikTok Music Canada. “It’s not just about consuming the music; it’s about actively participating in the creative process.”
Many of the biggest songs on the social media platform were the ones that people interacted, memed and played with the most. That can resurrect an older song, like Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which was released over a decade ago in 2012.
Here’s the full list of most popular songs on TikTok in Canada this year:
When it comes to the most popular artists on TikTok in Canada this year, it’s an interesting mixed bag. Tate McRae is on the list after a year that saw her transcend social media onto the stage of SNL and the cover of Billboard. Artists like Lauren Spencer Smith, Alexander Stewart and Faouzia made intimate and emotional music that people related to so much they had to use the sound. Others, like Tiagz, blurred the lines between “creator” and “artist,” making content designed to go viral first, then chart later.
Find the full list here.
Why Changes Could Be Coming to Montreal’s Music and Noise Laws
Montreal venue owners have been making noise about existential threats to their businesses. Now, the City of Montreal says a new nightlife policy will make changes to how noise is regulated in the city.
On Nov. 20, Sergio Da Silva incited a conversation about noise complaints when he posted a screenshot of a message recently received by Turbo Haüs, a long-running rock venue he co-owns located in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles entertainment district.
In French, the message informs Turbo Haüs that they may be subject to a fine of up to 12,000 Canadian dollars ($8,950) because noise from the venue was audible in a nearby residential region.
Turbo Haüs is far from the only venue affected by noise complaints in Montreal.
Prominent venue The Diving Bell Social Club, is currently preparing to close down this month, in part due to complaints the venue says they’ve received from a neighbouring landlord.
Responding to questions about noise complaints, Julien Deschênes — a political aid for the City of Montreal — tells Billboard Canada that a new nightlife policy is currently under development at the city, and should be ready for city council approval in January. The policy, Deschênes says, will seek to implement the “agent of change” principle, which puts the burden on new buildings that go up near commercial establishments to adapt to the existing noise in the area and not vice versa.
Deschênes says that the specific framework is not yet finalized, but that the policy will aim for implementation in the Ville-Marie borough, home to Turbo Haüs, as well as Plateau-Mont-Royal, where The Diving Bell is located.
Montreal has a reputation for supporting arts and culture — launching the careers of Canadian stars like Kaytranada and Grimes just in the last decade — but as rents rise, new developments go up, and the city landscape changes, artists and cultural workers are raising concern about the future of the city’s venues. READ MORE
SOCAN Foundation Announces Winners for 2023 Black Canadian Music Awards & Young Canadian Songwriters Awards
The SOCAN Foundation has announced the five winners of its fourth annual Black Canadian Music Awards, a group of rising talents in Canada’s music industry. Toronto hip-hop artist DVBLM; R&B singers Liza, Savannah Ré, and Myles Castello; and genre-hopping NAIIM take home $10,000 each as this year’s winners, with support from Sirius XM.
The awards, which were announced on Dec. 12, seek to recognize Black creators from all over the country. They’re determined by a jury of Black artists and industry experts from a pool of applicants.Honourable mentions for this year’s awards went to Eleanor, Tona, Kirk Diamond & FINN, Mah Moud and Ryan Ofei.
The SOCAN Foundation also just announced winners for another awards program: the Young Canadian Songwriters Awards.
The winners include seventeen-year-old Sofia Kay, who recently helped K-POP group Tomorrow x Together hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, co-writing their single, “Sugar Rush Ride.”
The winners of that award are:
Andelina Habel-Thurton for “Le grand retour de l’insomnie”
Brighid Fry (a.k.a. Housewife) for “Matilda”
Elizabeth Royall,for “Numb”
Fin McDowell for “People I Barely Knew”
Sofia Kay, for “Fuu”
READ MORE
Each week we’ll be sharing the most important news from the north with Canada’s top music industry stories, supplied by our colleagues at Billboard Canada.
For more Canadian music coverage visit ca.billboard.com.
Online Streaming Act hearings
For the last few weeks, a who’s who of stakeholders in Canadian music and media have been appearing before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) — from rights manager SOCAN to Spotify, Sirius XM and even UFC. The occasion is Bill C-11, a.k.a. the Online Streaming Act, which will update Canada’s Broadcasting Act for the first time in decades. The hearings will continue until Friday (Dec. 8).
It’s a major deal for the Canadian music business, whose system of CanCon requirements and public funds have built an industry that can compete — or at least not crumble — in a market dominated by American media to the south. This first round of hearings are focused on major streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube and potential regulations and monetary contributions they may have to make in order to continue operating in Canada.
“We hope that the CRTC will lean into this idea that it’s a once-in-a-generation regulatory process,” says Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada, which represents the major label. “There are a lot of big questions: Who gets regulated? Who pays? How much? Who has access to the money? Now is when we’re going to figure it out.”
A worry among many is that too much financial regulation of big American tech companies could cause them to scale back their investment in Canada. Something similar recently happened with Bill C-18, in which Meta chose to block all Canadian news rather than pay for it. In Spotify’s hearing, company executives — who have an office in Toronto — said that compelled spending could affect their existing Canadian investments.
“The objective here should be: how do we build a stable, viable, resilient, equitable, middle class of artists and thriving Canadian-owned businesses and the music space that can compete globally?” says Andrew Cash, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Music Association. READ MORE
How Quebec markets its music to the world
M for Montreal festival took place from Nov. 15-18, bringing Canadian and international visibility to Quebec music and artists. That’s an important objective in Quebec, where francophone music is marketed as much to France and globally as to the rest of Canada, which is divided by language.
According to the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles québécoises (SODEC), one of the festival’s main financial partners, M for Montreal is a significant market. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity to check the interest of foreign professionals in very particular artistic proposals whose potential is not yet known internationally,” says Élaine Dumont, general director of international affairs, exportation and marketing of Cinema at SODEC.
For her, events like M for Montreal are a fantastic way to gauge interest in Quebec musicians. “They are at home with their audience, so they can give the best of themselves, and that is precious,” says Élaine Dumont.
Similarly, SODEC supports collective presence, which means making sure Quebec artists and music industry professionals are represented at festivals worldwide. “We collaborate with M for Montreal, Mundial Montreal, FME, POP Montreal, for example, so that they send professionals internationally,” she adds. Thus, M for Montreal participates in events such as South by Southwest in Texas, Reeperbahn Festival in Germany, The New Colossus in New York and The Great Escape Festival in England.
“The festival has a good network in France, Germany, the UK, the US, and the rest of Canada,” notes programmer Mathieu Aubre. And because the French market is not approached like that of Francophone Africa, for example, SODEC, with an annual budget of over $4 million for the export of Quebec music, also offers specific support to territories. “We distribute various aids that allow us to take risks, support artists’ careers and develop audiences outside Quebec and internationally,” says Dumont. READ MORE
Diljit Dosanjh to play the biggest Punjabi concert outside of India
Diljit Dosanjh is set to make history next year with a just-announced performance at Vancouver’s BC Place on April 27, 2024 — the country’s first-ever Punjabi stadium show. With a capacity of 54,500, it’s expected to be the largest ever Punjabi music performance outside of India.
The BC Place announcement caps off a banner year for Dosanjh. This summer, he became the first artist to perform a fully Punjabi set at Coachella and in September, he released his latest album, Ghost, blends smooth R&B, moody trap and laid-back pop. The album spent seven weeks on Billboard’s Canadian Albums chart, peaking at No. 5. His collaboration with Sia, “Hass Hass,” also went to No. 37 on the Canadian Hot 100.
Speaking to Billboard Canada for a cover story about the popularity of Punjabi music in Canada, talent buyer Baldeep Randhawa recalled taking a job at Live Nation with a goal of supporting South Asian music. At the time, he hinted at big things to come with Dosanjh and said he had already shown there’s a major market for Punjabi music in Canada.
“I told them I was gonna prove the concept, book a 500 cap[acity] room and eventually go bigger,” Randhawa said.
When only a couple of months later, Live Nation booked Dosanjh, Randhawa learned he could skip right over the 500 capacity rooms and book arenas. Dosanjh performed at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, then a sold-out show at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena — which has a capacity of 18,000 — in June 2022.
Dosanjh is a superstar, but he’s not the only Punjabi artist making waves in Canada. Dosanjh collaborator Ikky recently announced a headline tour visiting five Canadian provinces in February 2024. READ MORE
The Oak View Group is working with Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group and officials of the city of Hamilton, Ontario on a plan to begin renovations on the 18,500-capacity FirstOntario Centre, a reimagined arena that will be the centerpiece in revitalizing the city as a music, sports and entertainment destination, 45 miles southwest of Toronto.
The $280 million renovation is spearheaded by Oak View Group who will transform the facility into an 18,000-seat capacity venue with a reimagined facade, premium seating, enhanced acoustics, improved sightlines, upgraded concourses, optimized clubs and suites and artist lounges. The newly modernized venue will accommodate shows unable to land an available date at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Scotiabank Arena is owned my Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, where Tim Leiweke, OVG Chairman & CEO, served as chief executive from 2013 to 2015.
Live Nation will serve as the arena’s booking partner and bring concerts and other live events to Hamilton. Work on the facility will begin in spring 2024, and the building is expected to open in fall 2025.
“Our timing is perfect,” says Leiweke, noting that billions of dollars in construction for ten projects in Hamilton is planned for the fast growing region. “It’s a great market as Toronto has run out space for new construction. We’re making a big bet but we feel great about it. We have a great team here in place, a lot of great companies that believe in us and we are feeling very optimistic.”
OVG recently worked with Louis Messina, promoter of the Taylor Swift tour, to sell sponsorships for the singer’s six night run in November 2024 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
“We already have a great infrastructure in place with a strong team up here,” said Leiweke. Besides Hamilton, Oak View Group recently completed renovations at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore and plans to complete work at Coop-Live arena in Manchester, U.K. later this year.
The Hamilton Arena Project was designed by Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects and is part of a larger downtown revitalization project known as “The Commons”, which includes the arena, renovated convention centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton as well as new residential, office, and retail space development.
Leiweke tells Billboard the new facility “will completely transform the downtown area with its accessibility, technology forward improvements and priority on sustainability.”
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.
[embedded content]
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.
Punjabi music history is being made in Canada. An innovative new wave of diasporic artists is blurring boundaries between genres and setting chart records. They’re blending traditional and contemporary sounds to create something undeniably their own — and it’s spreading worldwide.
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With its massive population and an ultra-profitable entertainment film and music industry, India is one of the top entertainment markets in the world. Punjabi music has emerged in its own right, with labels like New York hip-hop legend Nas’s Mass Appeal and Universal Music teaming up to spotlight the music in both India and North America. This year, singer/actor Diljit Dosanjh became the first to play a set at Coachella entirely in Punjabi.
It’s not only an Indian phenomenon, but a Canadian one. Diplomatically, the relationship between the two countries is suddenly tense, but it hasn’t dulled the power of the music. There are over 2.5 million people of South Asian heritage in Canada, and they account for some of the most popular music on both sides of the world. Three of the top 10 tracks in India in 2022 were made by Canadian artists. On Spotify, the top streamed track was “Excuses” by AP Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Intense, who broke out from British Columbia. Canada, where artists blend cultural heritages fluidly, is proving to be fertile ground for an international movement of genre-spanning music.
Collectively, artists like Dhillon, Gill, Karan Aujla, Jonita Gandhi and Ikky continue to amass billions of streams on Spotify and YouTube and perform on the country’s biggest stages. They’ve starred in documentaries, collaborated with hip-hop stars like YG, and turned audiences who might not speak a word of Punjabi into overnight diehards.
But despite all of their measurable success, it’s taken the Canadian music industry a long time to recognize and support the artists who have been proving themselves on their own terms. That’s finally starting to change, even during a challenging time.
Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set off a diplomatic crisis when he accused the Indian government of potential involvement in the assassination of Sikh activist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Tensions have been rising between the two countries since then, and artists have simultaneously found themselves facing scrutiny. Just weeks ago, Punjabi-Canadian rapper and singer Shubh had his Indian tour cancelled after facing criticism for sharing a piece of art that he says was politically misinterpreted.
“We are trying to make art that helps people on an individual level, regardless of their colour, race, religion, nationality [or] gender,” writes Dhillon in a recent Instagram post. “Division has gotten us to this point but unity is the key to the future.”
For Punjabi-Canadian artists, this is not a time to shrink away from the spotlight. It’s a time to engage and spread their music around the world. It’s a culmination of years of work that is now coming to fruition in a major way.
A home for Punjabi music in Canada
Karan Aujla and Ikky have some serious bragging rights.
Their addictive summer pop album Making Memories debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, making it the highest-charting Punjabi album debut in Canadian history. At launch, it sat above Midnights, the newest album from arguably the largest pop star in the world.
“All of my friends were joking around telling me, yo, you passed Taylor Swift!” Aujla tells Billboard Canada. “When we saw these numbers, and we saw that mark, we thought, okay, something is happening here.”
This summer, Warner Music Canada and Warner Music India came together to launch 91 North Records, a new label aimed at supporting South Asian artists across borders. At their industry launch event at their new office in Toronto, Warner Music Canada’s president Kristen Burke called the label a reflection of significant changes in the Canadian music industry.
The rise of music streaming and social media networks like TikTok have built worldwide exposure to music beyond local radio and opened the doors to new and different sounds. There’s been a rise in popularity for artists from all over the world, especially Punjabi music. “This music deserves a platform on the global stage and a dedicated label based in Toronto,” she said.
Ikky, the 22-year-old producer born Ikwinder Singh, is the label’s creative director. Internationally renowned playback singer Jonita Gandhi is one of their first signings. Gandhi, who sings in various regional Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi, said at the launch that she sometimes has a hard time figuring out where she belongs, but feels right at home at 91 North. “I feel like I’m finally being seen,” she remarked.
Ikky says 91 North gives him a chance to think beyond himself and build a unified front amongst the new Punjabi wave. The goal, he says, is to get Punjabi artists to a point where they can compete on a global level next to the biggest artists in the world. It’s not just global outreach, but major label infrastructure that he says many artists in India desperately need.
Aujla says that’s something he struggled with before he signed with Warner Canada and Warner India. He came to Surrey, British Columbia, from the small village of Ghurala in India’s Punjab state when he was 17 and built a career writing for other artists. But he didn’t know how he was supposed to be compensated for it. He’d never heard of SOCAN, for instance, which represents rights holders for music in Canada.
“When I was young, I didn’t know what I was doing. I really needed help,” he says. “I wrote over a hundred songs and didn’t know I was supposed to get royalties. Some people around me took advantage. And that’s still happening in Punjab a lot. It needs to be corrected ASAP.”
Back home, he says, some people actually pay TV stations and record labels to play their music, not vice versa. “They don’t know what’s going on with the business side of music,” he says. “But now they’re starting to know.”
Paving the path
One of the biggest stars of Punjabi music is AP Dhillon, whose mix of trap beats and melodic lyricism has made him a champion of Punjabi culture in both India and North America. AP Dhillon: First of a Kind, a recent Prime Video docu-series about his rapid rise, follows Dhillon, his collaborators Shinda Kahlon and Gurinder Gill, and his small team at Run-Up Records as they embark on their first Canadian tour.
Dhillon’s very first show was at his hometown hockey rink, Vancouver’s nearly 19,000-seat Rogers Arena, and it only went up from there. Though the venues may be large, staying small and independent helps him keep his vision in his own hands, where he collaborates on everything from production to music videos. But it wasn’t a conscious choice. It was a necessity.
“Early on, I tried to send my music to a few labels, to people in the industry. I tried to message producers,” Dhillon recounts. “It wasn’t going anywhere. They weren’t grabbing it. They were like ‘this ain’t it.’ So we just kept going, kept going, kept going, and we didn’t stop.”
Gurinder Gill, his former collaborator who’s now striking out on his own, had never even been to a concert before performing for crowds of more than 10,000.
“The first concert we went to was our own,” he says. “One day you’re living your daily life and then, boom, next thing you know you’re on stage with this many people cheering on your music, cheering your name. It’s just a blessing.”
For major concert promoters, the numbers are becoming too big to ignore. Baldeep Randhawa is a talent buyer at Live Nation, and he says the company has big plans for Punjabi artists in Canada, the United States and the U.K. “We’re all collectively working on this on a global scale to really put some fuel on this fire,” he says from his office in Vancouver.
Used to seeing major Punjabi acts play in banquet halls and wedding venues, his initial goal was to break barriers and get them into “proper venues” of 500 capacity or more. The growth has been so rapid, however, that the company now has their sights set much higher: stadiums. That’s an achievable goal for artists like Dhillon and Diljit Dosanjh, who have already easily sold out arenas in cities like Toronto and Vancouver. But the strategy also includes breaking up-and-coming acts, like Calgary-based Prabh, who already have tens of millions of streams. Often, that means giving them the support they never had access to, which sometimes includes PR, management, even advice on merchandise.
That’s something new for many Punjabi artists, who are able to get huge numbers quickly without the tools to properly capitalize. For Gill, before coming to Canada as a student in 2015, he didn’t seriously consider pursuing music as a career. Though he’d perform at local singing competitions in Punjab, it wasn’t until he found a small community of friends who shared his passion for music that he realized music could be something bigger.
“We were not financially stable [at first], and we were finishing school,” he says. “It was a lot of work when we started taking it seriously. We had to do everything by ourselves.”
Now, his tracks have garnered billions of streams worldwide. His debut solo album, Hard Choices, which dropped this summer on Run-Up Records, showcases his lyrical prowess, blending Punjabi imagery, melodies and confident wordplay over steady hip-hop and trap beats. It represents a willingness to innovate, which is something he and his peers all share.
“We always try to do something new, something that hasn’t been done before,” he says. “That’s why the songs we release are a different sound for our industry or for the mainstream.”
A sound that crosses borders
The new sound of Punjabi music reflects a sensibility more than a genre. Combining classical folk stylings with elements of hip-hop, R&B and electronic music, it’s music that refuses to be limited.
Bhangra, an upbeat folk dance and music native to Punjab that originally celebrated the harvest season, is known for its accompaniment with live instruments like the dhol drum. Noticing a lack of heavy bass, artists in the 1980s and 90s began merging it with funk, reggae, dub and garage music that punctuated British soundwaves, making a global impact. In the process, artists have created points of connection for youth who may otherwise have been alienated from their language, art and culture — which is increasingly challenging to preserve with generations of migration.
Following this tradition, Punjabi-Canadian artists have put themselves on the map by creating music reflective of their specific worlds of influence. That’s especially true in multicultural cities like Toronto, where diverse sounds flow organically.
Gandhi, who has fielded questions about sounding “too Indian” or “too Western” throughout her career, says she now appreciates the blend of global influences that defined her early life in the Greater Toronto Area city of Brampton. “Being exposed to so many different cultures and people from around the world in my school opened up my mind to a lot of music that I might not have come across if I grew up somewhere else,” she says.
Ikky, who was born in Rexdale and now lives in Brampton too, says his music is also inextricable from his upbringing. The essence of his Punjabi heritage is in everything he makes, but so are reggae and dancehall, hip-hop and R&B, because those were the influences he was growing up around. “Our diversity is crazy in Toronto,” he says, “enough for you to be adding these cultures in your music without you ever knowing it.”
Ikky pushed Aujla to expand his sound while recording Making Memories in Toronto. None of his collaborators spoke Punjabi, but they built a shared musical language in the studio while jamming and trading records. Ikky curated an inspo playlist on Spotify ranging from hip-hop (Drake, J. Cole, Mobb Deep, 50 Cent, DJ Khaled) to R&B (Aaliyah, Ashanti, Keyshia Cole) to reggae (Wayne Wonder) to Punjabi-Canadian forebears (Jazzy B). You can hear it all in the smooth, effortless vibes of the music.
Aujla prides himself on being a writer first, but he’s proud of the cross-cultural audience his music is reaching. He’s a big fan of Bad Bunny, and he’s been obsessively listening to the Puerto Rican artist recently, trying to figure out how his specific melodies feel so universal despite the language barrier. Latin artists are dominating charts in and out of Latin America, and that inescapable global power is within reach for Punjabi artists.
“It’s just that one thing that we need to get right and what’s happened with Spanish music could happen to Punjabi music,” Aujla says. “We’re working day and night to get that right sound, that right melody that will just go everywhere in the world.”
A sound that lasts
Meanwhile, they’re still fighting for recognition at home. At this year’s Juno Awards, AP Dhillon did something that has never been done before.
Donning a dapper white tux, he crooned his recent single “Summer High,” giving the first ever Punjabi performance at Canada’s biggest music gala. It was a big breakthrough moment of recognition from the industry, but Dhillon says he fought to make sure it wouldn’t be a novelty or a one-off.
“I had a thorough talk with them before performing. I said ‘I’m honoured to do it. But there’s one condition: you gotta put my people on.’” he recalls. “It’s not a one-time thing that helps sell tickets for the Junos and then call it a day. Punjabi music will be there forever.”
Musicians are seeing the shift, and not just in the places you might expect.
This summer, Ikky was booked at the Calgary Stampede, an annual festival best known for rodeo exhibitions and cowboy boots. Ikky, who is Sikh, heeded warnings that people in Alberta tend to experience racism more acutely than in Ontario. Knowing he would be the first Punjabi artist to perform there, he arrived ready to DJ country songs. But his plans quickly changed.
“I intended to go there and play Morgan Wallen. That is what I really thought I was gonna go do,” he laughs. “As soon as I saw the mixture of people there, I was like, no, we gotta go completely Punjabi. We gotta give what defines Punjabi music.”
By the end of the set, people had come from rides and from queues to hear the music that was coming from that street stage, and by the end the crowd grew to about a thousand people. “That’s that moment where I thought, okay, what you’re doing is right. Keep your foot on the gas.”
That’s still the case, even as artists like Shubh (who Ikky collaborated with on last year’s “Baller”) face obstacles to free expression and risk misinterpretation for things they do or don’t say. In a way, it shows how much their music is resonating.
“It scares us a little, but at the same time it shows our power,” Ikky says. “As artists, we have a big enough voice to shake a country.”
There have been teases of this kind of mainstream crossover in the past, from “Beware of the Boys,” the Bhangra/hip-hop collaboration of Panjabi MC and Jay-Z in the early 2000s, to the “international” version of Shania Twain’s 2002 mega-seller Up!, but while those fusions have been taken as short-term novelties, the new wave of Punjabi artists are building a foundation to make it endure.
Brampton-based rapper Sidhu Moose Wala was a major figure in opening the door to the mainstream for Punjabi musicians. Tragically murdered in India in 2022, the same year his album Moosetape became the then-highest charting Punjabi album in Canada, he is unable to see the success of this new wave, many of whom collaborated or took inspiration from him. That’s why these artists stress the importance of banding together to uplift each other, paving the path for the next generation.
AP Dhillon says he’s seeing the industry change rapidly. When he started to blow up, the labels weren’t seeing what he and his peers were doing. Today, like billions of people on YouTube and at concerts, they have their eyes on what’s happening here.
“A few years ago, nobody was paying attention,” he says. “Now, they’re paying attention.”
This story originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
Ishmil Waterman, Lane Dorsey, Sasha Jairam/Billboard Canada
