Montreal
Changes are coming to Montreal’s nightlife. Following public outcry over the closure of the popular venue La Tulipe, Mayor Valérie Plante announced this week (Sept. 25) that venues will now be exempt from the bylaw that led to its closure.
The venue announced this week it would cease operations due to a decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal, which mandated the venue to not emit sound that could be heard in an adjacent building.
Specifically, in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough of Montreal (a popular area for live music), music venues will no longer be subject to Section 9 of the bylaw governing noise regulation, which specifies that amplified sound cannot be audible in a neighbouring building. Projet Montreal, Plante’s party, has also committed to improving the city’s soundproofing program and presenting a new nightlife policy in October.
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Plante posted a video on Instagram, sharing her own dismay at the news that La Tulipe would be closing its doors for the foreseeable future. She expresses concern that one person could derail an entire music venue.
“Yes to neighbourliness, but no to the dictatorship of neighbours,” Plante says in the video.
La Tulipe isn’t the only venue in the city to be affected by noise bylaws. Popular spots like Divan Orange and Diving Bell Social Club have previously closed down due to noise complaints.The outcry to the news about La Tulipe indicated a growing frustration amongst cultural laborers in the city, which has a reputation as a haven for arts production in Canada. – Rosie Long Decter
Newly Announced Rogers Stadium Will Become One of Canada’s Biggest Music Venues
On Thursday (Sept. 26), Live Nation and Northcrest Developments announced Rogers Stadium, the new 50,000 capacity outdoor venue in Toronto opening in June 2025. The venue will instantly become one of the biggest in Canada, with a slightly higher capacity than Toronto’s other stadium, Rogers Centre. It’s also one of the world’s few venues of the size that isn’t also home to a sports team.
The venue will be located at YZD, on the site of what used to be the Downsview Airport in North Toronto. Bombardier used the land for an air field, air force base and testing base for aircrafts. In 2018, Bombardier sold the facility to Northcrest Developments and will move its operations to Pearson Airport.
Rogers Stadium in Toronto
Courtesy of Northcrest Developments/Billboard Canada
The company is redeveloping the land into mixed-use residential communities, a $30B plan that is slated to take 30 years. In the meantime, the 370-acre site, now called YZD, is being used for a variety of arts, community and other initiatives as part of “Meanwhile Use Strategy.”
After the announcement press conference, Billboard Canada spoke to Erik Hoffman, president of music at Live Nation Canada, about why they decided to open the venue and why now. Hoffman says the decision was inspired by a specific artist.
“The idea came from [working with] a major artist who we were very frustrated that we couldn’t find dates [for],” says Hoffman. “They were just going to bypass Toronto on their world tour.”
That act (unrevealed, but there’s plenty of room for speculation) will now play Rogers Stadium next summer, one of 12-15 shows on the 2025 slate. Hoffman says almost all of those shows are already booked.
“It’ll be the biggest year we’ve ever had in stadium-level touring. By far,” he says. “It’s the kind of acts that you would traditionally see at an NFL stadium in the U.S. or the Rogers Centre here. The biggest acts in the world, and some of them setting up for multiple days.”
Stadium and festival-size shows are in high demand, he says, and Toronto is one of the top stops on any world tour. The city is also multicultural and multilingual, which makes it an ideal market for exploding genres from around the world including K-pop, Latin music and Punjabi music. Stadium shows from Indian star Diljit Dosanjh in Toronto and Vancouver this summer have shown there’s an appetite.
“If the fans weren’t coming, [artists] wouldn’t stage shows that big,” Hoffman says. “Not to dumb it down too much, but if they keep selling out stadium shows you do more stadium shows.” – Richard Trapunski
Somali-Canadian Artist K’naan Charged with Sexual Assault
Canadian musician K’naan has been charged with sexual assault.
A charge sheet was filed this week (Sept. 26) in Quebec City for the musician and director, born Keinan Abdi Warsame, for a count of sexual assault dating back to 2010, The Canadian Press reports.
The arrest warrant alleges that the assault took place between July 16 and 17 in Quebec City, which coincides with a show he played at Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) in 2010. CBC reports that the complaint was first filed in May of 2022 with the Montreal police, but was later transferred to Quebec City. The assault allegedly took place in a hotel room on territory covered by the Quebec City police force.
K’naan, who’s known for his 2009 hit “Wavin’ Flag” (later rerecorded as the global anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup), took an extended break after his 2012 album Troubadour and spent time in both Canada and the United States. Recently, he has recently returned to prominence.
The Somali-Canadian musician returned with “Refugee” in 2023, a song that he said was intended to feel “like a home for those of us made homeless by conflict.” K’naan won the Best Song for Social Change Award by the Recording Academy at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Just over two weeks ago, K’naan made his debut as a director, premiering his feature film Mother Mother at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This week, on Sept. 24, K’naan attended the SOCAN Awards at History in Toronto and accepted the SOCAN Cultural Impact Award for the lasting global impact of his anthem, “Wavin’ Flag.”
Warsame was not in attendance for the proceedings in Quebec. The case has been set for April 2025. According to Radio-Canada, Warsame’s lawyer has requested he be tried in English in front of a jury. – R.T.
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”
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