It's funny. We've been doing this Canadian music thing in March for four years now.
We've now had Carly Rae Jepson posts in three of them. The year we missed? 2022.
This song is from Jepsen's 2022 Juno-nominated album The Loneliest Time.
The video is absolutely hilarious, and the song is a bop (and hilarious in its own right) that should have been a hit everywhere.
We know from past experience that Carly Rae puts on a hell of a good show. Here she is in Montreal putting on a hell of a great performance of this banger.
Congratualtions to Charlotte Cardin on her multiple Juno Award wins.
I don't know as of this writing (I wrote this in February) whether she won last night or not, but, given all her nominations and critical acclaim, I'm going to bet she did. I'll edit this post if I was wrong (but I won't be).
(Edit:24 March - she won Pop Album of the Year. and one of the major awards, Album of the Year. She did lose Artist and Single of the Year - both to Tate McRae.)
This song was nominated for Song of the Year this year (one of her six Juno nominations, including two for the album 99 Nights). Written by Cardin, Jason Brando and Lubalin, this song is funky and has a strong R&B influence, with Cardin's husky voice carrying the track. The song is lyrically a little depressing - reminding me a bit of "Habits (Stay High)".
The song has been Cardin's biggest hit in Canada - her first top 10 entry - and she is absolutely an artist that deserves attention outside of Canada.
Could Charlotte Cardin be the Canadian Taylor Swift? Who knows, but this crowd is really into her performance.
I failed to mention earlier that Cardin is from Montreal, is of course still Canadian, and currently lives in Paris.
I mention this because, on her 99 Nights Deluxe release, which was mostly French, she included 4 extra songs.... and really, this was just 99 Nights plus her EP, Une semaine à Paris.
Yes, Begonia is nominated at this year's Juno's (Adult Alternative Album of the Year, for Powder Blue), which are TONIGHT.
Begonia is the stage name of Alexa Dirks, a singer/songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba, which, to those in the States who aren't following along this March, is in Canada. She is unique, and flamboyant, and entertaining, and she deserves a bigger spotlight, which is why we're featuring her on a Wednesday and not a Sunday.
This song is a centerpiece of her nominated album, and was co-written by the artist with Matt Schellenberg and Matthew Peters (the three of them also produced the song). It is a short song, sure, but also, it's a great showcase for one of the more unique voices in music today.
Begonia's songs are known to be even more epic live. This is an in-studio live performance of this song at incredibly influential CFNY in Toronto - so maybe not so epic, but still, amazing.
If you didn't know that Feist was still making music after "1 2 3 4", you're missing out on a fabulous solo artist. The Nova Scotia-born and Calgary-raised artist released her comeback album Multitudes, nominated for a Juno and shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music prize (it lost that), in 2023, and it is truly delightful.
The album documents the death of Feist's father and the adoption of her daughter - which makes for a rich tapestry of just beautiful folk-pop music.
As is typical of Feist, she puts on a hell of a live show - and in this show, she also shows the phenominal video she made for this beautiful song.
Also, this month is so packed we've got Feist on a SATURDAY!
In this week where we are posting about absolute monstrous superstars, we bring one of the biggest stars on the planet.
I mean, her name - Céline - is synonymous with her.
Who is the best selling French language artist in history? Céline Dion.
Who is the best selling Canadian artist in history? Céline Dion.
Who is the biggest gaping hole in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame? Céline Dion.
She is the first Maple Leaf March post-ee to be a Eurovision winner - in 1988, representing Switzerland, despite being a Canadian, from Charlemagne, Quebec, just outside of Montreal. 1988 was also the year she learned how to speak English, having grown up a French speaker. She was 20 and had been recording music for almost a decade - and music that was relatively well-known in the French-speaking world.
After she broke through in the Anglo market, she did not forget her roots. In 1995, she released a Francophone album called D'eux in most of the world. In the United States, it was called The French Album.
OF COURSE the English speaking world didn't embrace the ALBUM like the French speaking world did, but it was a big hit in Europe and Canada. This was one of her best-known singles of that era - in her very distinctive style, only in French. This particular single was actually a hit in the UK as well, making the top 10.
It is her biggest French language hit by far.
When she performs the song live in the French-speaking world, it is like "My Heart Will Go On". Everyone knows EVERY word.
Even during her Vegas residency, she performed the song, because of course she did. The song is clearly very important to her, and English audiences do respond.
Gordon Lightfoot passed away last May, and we didn't do a Special Edition post for him.
That's because I was saving it for today. This week, when I am posting about some of the giants of Canadian music.
Gordon Lightfoot was a goddamn Canadian treasure, and there's no fucking way we weren't putting a fitting tribute into Maple Leaf March. Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986, we aren't just saying things like this to say them. We're saying them because he is revered to this day across Canada, and he truly spoke to life in Canada in a lot of his songs.
This song was released in 1967, having been commissioned in 1966 by the CBC to commemorate the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which is transcontinental, as part of a celebration of the Canadian Centennial.
Lightfoot's debut album was released in 1966, and he had a few top 10 hits as far back as 1962, so he was already a big enough deal to do this. This song was also included on his 1967 album The Way I Feel, and is a huge and epic song of labor and national pride.
He re-recorded the song for his 1975 greatest hits album Gord's Gold.
We could think of no greater tribute than a performance of this song from Reno, NV in the year 2000. This is one of the videos that is included as part of his official Canadian Music Hall of Fame record.
Not good enough? How about this 1972 performance from the BBC? It's different, equally beautiful, and spreads the Canadian pride.
OK, you want peak Canadian pride. I get it.
Here's Gordon Lightfoot performing "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" on Ottawa's Parliament Hill on the occasion of Canada's 125th birthday party.
For four years, we've had this draft ready to go every March.
For four years, we've ignored Shania Twain (except for this cameo on a Anne Murray post two days into the first #MapleLeafMarch).
Shania Twain is arguably the biggest hit singer to come out of Canada in a generation (arguable because Céline Dion is from the same generation) With over 100 million records sold, she is the biggest female country artist of all time. Her 1997 album Come on Over is recognized as the biggest selling album by any female solo artist, ever, in any genre, and the eighth best selling by any type of musical artist, anywhere.
And yes, the best selling album by any Canadian artist.
Shania Twain is a monstrous pop-country crossver superstar.
This song is a huge part of all of that. The 1997 ballad is far and away the biggest hit song she ever had - the one that truly crossed her over to a pop audience and out of her country pigeonhole. The song, cowritten by Twain and her then-husband (more on that in a minute), producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, is a mandolin and pan flute driven track, a beautifully written love song. It peaked at #1 on the country charts and #2 on the pop charts in the US, and was a top ten hit worldwide, including in her native Canada.
The video was the first by a female country artist to be nominated for an MTV Video Music award - for Best Female Video in 1998 (she lost to "Ray of Light" which was admittedly a fantastic video that also won Video of the Year).
She was, and is, a huge crossover superstar.
She, of course, became a worldwide superstar. In this 1998 performance, the very large crowd at the Prince's Trust concert in Hyde Park knows every word.
In this acoustic performance of the song, she talks about her unlikely relationship with her husband - their 17-year age difference, their different cultural backgrounds.
Also, stick around to the end to hear Shania talk about her cleavage.
Twain divorced her husband in 2010 after reports he was having an affair with her best friend. Her best friend's husband also divorced his wife. That man, Frédéric Thiébaud, married Twain in 2011.
I just love that story.
Also in 2011, Shania was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, which she richly deserved, by her friend and fellow Canadian Bryan Adams.
Even though Robert wasn't the one for life, this song is, and she still performs it - she just doesn't mention who it's about. In this performance from last year, she nailed it.
