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TikTok is taking the Canadian government to court.
Last month, the popular social media app was ordered by the federal government to “wind down” its operations in Canada following a national security review.

“We will challenge this order in court,” TikTok said at the time.

Now, the company is following through on the promise. TikTok Canada has filed notice of application for judicial review, which is an official legal challenge to the decision.

“This order would eliminate the jobs and livelihoods of our hundreds of dedicated local employees – who support the community of more than 14 million monthly Canadian users on TikTok, including businesses, advertisers, creators, and initiatives developed especially for Canada,” the company wrote on its official website. “We believe it’s in the best interest of Canadians to find a meaningful solution and ensure that a local team remains in place, alongside the TikTok platform.”

Trending on Billboard

TikTok posted the whole legal filing on its website, which you can read here. The document breaks down the order of events, suggesting TikTok cooperated with the security review but was surprised by the abrupt announcement.

The company is requesting a court date to challenge the decision in Vancouver, B.C., one of the two locations of its offices. The other is in Toronto.

The filing calls the order “grossly disproportionate” and says it “will result in the termination of hundreds of employees in Canada and the potential termination of over 250,000 contracts with Canadian-based advertisers.”

The legal filing also focuses on the impact to those creators who use the platform, stating that the order “will cause the destruction of significant economic opportunities and intangible benefits to Canadian creators, artists and businesses, and the Canadian cultural community more broadly.”

The federal government made the decision to shut down TikTok’s Canadian operations following a review of its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd., calling the operation “injurious to national security.” Canadian users would still be able to use and access TikTok, but the company would be forced to close its offices in Canada.

The filing follows a new law in the United States that would require ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19, 2025 or face a ban in the country. – Richard Trapunski

Charlotte Day Wilson to Play Special Orchestral Concert in Toronto in 2025

Charlotte Day Wilson is preparing for a hometown concert that she calls “a dream opportunity.”

On Feb. 28, 2025, the Grammy nominated R&B/soul singer-songwriter will play a Red Bull Symphonic concert with members of the the Symphonic Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, the home of the acclaimed Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Charlotte Day

Emily Lipson

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 13, 2024 at redbull.ca/symphonic.

Previous editions of Red Bull Symphonic in Atlanta and Los Angeles have featured Rick Ross and Metro Boomin, plus special guests including John Legend, Swae Lee and more.

It will be the first orchestral concert for Wilson, and she’s approaching it as a full vision of her current state as a musician.

“I want people to come away from it understanding the musical makeup that I have and of my sense of self within music,” Charlotte Day Wilson tells Billboard Canada over Zoom from her apartment in Toronto.

She’s still in her early 30s, but Wilson has been recording and performing for well over a decade. With two albums and multiple EPs, she has a full body of work to play from, and she’s excited to rethink it in a new context.

Her 2024 album, Cyan Blue, has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, and though Jack Rochon was the primary engineer, Wilson says the two of them made everything in the room together as “an exchange of two people producing and engineering and writing all in tandem.”

Charlotte Day Wilson’s soulful voice and songwriting chops have become a secret weapon for many renowned musicians. She’s performed and collaborated with Kaytranada, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, BadBadNotGood and Nelly Furtado, and one of her songs was even sampled by Drake.

The Grammy recognition and the ability to do a full-scale orchestral concert feels like a mark of wider recognition in a field that can often include a lot of isolation. It also feels like a “maturing moment,” she says, which fits her mindset right now.

“It’s something I think about a lot as an artist,” she says. “In an industry that is ruthlessly obsessed with youth, how do we graduate into a next chapter of life and still maintain our integrity and relevance. That’s something I think about all the time, and it’s something I want to approach really deliberately.” – R.T.

Patrick Watson’s ‘Je te laisserai des mots’ Becomes First French-Language Song To Hit A Billion Spotify Streams

Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson has made history on Spotify.

His 2010 song “Je te laisserai des mots” is now the first French-language song to hit a billion streams on the platform.

The song, a wistful composition led by piano and strings, was first written for the 2009 film Mères et Filles.

Listeners clearly agreed that the song has a cinematic quality: it went viral in 2021 and 2022, used by thousands of TikTokers — including Justin Bieber — to soundtrack serene or sad moments in their own lives during Covid restrictions.

Watson joins Bieber and other Canadian artists like Drake, Tate McRae, Alessia Cara and Shawn Mendes in Spotify’s Billions Club. Most of the other Canadian members are major label signees with a pop-oriented sound, which makes Watson — an acclaimed indie singer-songwriter represented by Montreal’s Secret City Records — a more unusual entry into the club.

 “Je te laisserai des mots” was the most-streamed French language track both in Canada and globally this year on Spotify, while the veteran songwriter and producer is the No. 6 most popular Québécois artist on Spotify this year in Canada. He finishes alongside Quebec legends Les Cowboys Fringants and Celine Dion, pop star Charlotte Cardin and rappers Souldia and Enima.

Spotify notes that since 2019, listening to music in French has jumped by 94% on the app — which means after Watson, another Billions Club French-language song could only be a matter of time. – Rosie Long Decter

Music Business Year In Review

Taylor Swift began her two-week Eras Tour run in Toronto Thursday night (Nov. 14), and the city is going all out. 
Before she hit the stage, footage circulated of her arriving with a whole police cavalcade on the Gardiner Expressway – which is normally filled with traffic during rush hour.

There were plenty of Swifties seen following the Taylor Swift Way signs throughout downtown. Only ticketholders could get near the Rogers Centre before the show – including the city’s unhoused population, who were cleared from encampments and compelled to move to shelters. 

Trending on Billboard

An official Taylgate event took place at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre with photo ops, silent discos and friendship bracelet making stations. A similar “Swift Station” activation offered similar experiences on Queen Street while decked out to look like a subway station. 

News stations broadcast live from outside the stadium throughout the night, while Swift took the stage inside. Stories abounded about fans who tried and failed to get tickets, or who ended up getting scammed (the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre issued warnings as they were overloaded with complaints). Ticketmaster did, however, release some last minute tickets on the day of the show, though they were gone quickly. 

Inside at the concert, Taylor Swift made some nods to the Canadian crowd. “Doesn’t it seem like the entire Folklore era just belongs in Canada?” she asked before launching into that section of the show. “The place that I envisioned in my mind where Folklore took place, it’s very natural, wilderness, beautiful, forests that have been there since the beginning of time. And it just kind of feels like we’re returning the Folklore era to where it belongs anyway.”

Her dancer, Kam, also added a Canadian touch during “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” with an exaggerated “Soorry aboot it!” during his line. 

There are two more Eras Tour shows this weekend, on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16, before she returns to Rogers Centre next week for shows on Nov. 21, 22 and 23. – Richard Trapunski

Canadian Songwriters Earn Grammy Nominations for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter

The 2025 Grammy nominations were announced last week, and Beyoncé leads the list — along with her Canadian collaborators.

“Texas Hold ‘Em,” co-written by three Canadians, has been nominated for two of the biggest awards, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Writers Nathan Ferraro, Lowell, and Megan Bülow all picked up nominations for Song of the Year, which is awarded to the writers and composers behind the track, as well as Best Country Song. Ferraro talked with Billboard Canada earlier this year about his Canadian writing team. 

“[The collaboration] works well for us,” Ferraro told Billboard Canada. “We’re such good friends and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think we all have a lot of mutual respect, so we have a lot of confidence together and that allows us to take risks.”

Lowell, meanwhile, won the inaugural Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award this summer.

Beyoncé’s country album Cowboy Carter is also nominated for Album of the Year with Canadian Dave Hamelin (formerly of Montreal indie rock band The Stills and now a regular collaborator with 070 Shake) named in the nomination for his work as a producer and songwriter across the album.

In total, Beyoncé picked up a whopping 11 nominations for her history-making Cowboy Carter, which features a slew of Canadian contributions.

Serban Ghenea, meanwhile, racked up the highest number of Canadian nods: a grand total of five nominations, for his work with a trifecta of pop stars: Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande. 

Other Canadian nominees included The Weeknd, Kaytranada, Charlotte Day Wilson, Spiritbox and Cirkut, for his work on Charli XCX’s cultural phenomenon, Brat.

Read about all the Canadian nominees here. –Rosie Long Decter

Quebec Government Pursues Action Against Ticket Resale Site Billets.ca

The Quebec government is taking action against ticket resales.

The province’s Office of Consumer Protection announced Wednesday, Nov. 13, that the Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions has served 26 statements of infraction to Billets.ca.

If proven guilty, each infraction could merit a fine between $2,000 and $100,000 for the company, and between $600 and $15,000 for President Éric Bussières.

The Office is accusing Billets.ca of reselling tickets at higher prices than those advertised by authorized salespersons. It also charges that the site is reselling tickets it does not possess. The infractions took place between November 2022 and September 2023.

Ticket resales have become an increasingly hot topic in the industry. Ticketmaster issued a warning in advance of Oasis’ North American tour dates going on sale, advising consumers not to trust resale sites that were already advertising tickets. The ticketing giant has also faced allegations in the past of working with resale sites.

Earlier this year, over 250 artists signed a letter titled Fix the Tix, addressing American legislators. “Predatory resellers have gone unregulated while siphoning money from the live entertainment ecosystem for their sole benefit,” the letter stated.

Quebec’s Loi sur la protection du consommateur forbids sellers from boosting prices during resales without express permission from the original authorized vendor. It also prohibits the use of technology to bypass controls on obtaining tickets. Sites like Billets.ca have often skirted these rules by acting as a broker for individual sellers, instead of selling the tickets themselves.

Quebec music association ADISQ welcomed the news.

“It’s a relief to see charges finally laid against Billets.ca and the practice of fraudulent ticket resale,” says Eve Paré, Executive Director of ADISQ, in French.

ADISQ states that it has made numerous complaints to Quebec’s Office of Consumer Protection regarding unauthorized ticket resales.

ADISQ notes that it is also eagerly awaiting the outcome of a class action lawsuit filed against Billets.ca on October 13, 2023. –RLD