27 March 2024 - Loverboy - Turn Me Loose

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I spent several months in Calgary, Alberta in 2019... and visited for a day in 2022 as well.   I love the city.  It was a great place to work and live and visit, and I would gleefully return. 

Why am I spending time evangelizing Calgary?  

Because today's Wicked Guilty Pleasure hails from Calgary.  Formed in 1979, they got their start as Kiss's opening act in Vancouver.  

Seriously.  That was their first live performance.

An album followed in 1980, and their first single, released in 1981, was "Turn Me Loose".  Mike Reno really sells the song - practically begging to do it his way or no way at all.  It ended up being a Top 40 hit in the US (and a huge hit on rock radio in the States as well) and Top 10 in Canada.  It also won the 1982 Juno Award for Single of the Year. 

It would be their biggest Canadian hit (but by no means their only!), but they did a lot more in the US, where MTV embraced them.

And, yes, they are Canadian Music Hall of Famers - 2009 inductees - beating Shania Twain there by 2 years. 

And yes, they are still together - after a brief hiatus in the late 80s, they reformed in the early 90s and never looked back.

And Mike Reno is older, but still commands the stage.  That classic bassline is still there.  The classic guitar is still here, more than 40 years after its initial release.  

26 March 2024 - Riit - qaumajuapik

I don't think I've ever featured an artist from Nunavut.

Hell, most of you don't know where Nunavut is.

Riit is from a town in Nunavut called Panniqtuq located on Baffin Island, which is about 45 km. south of the Arctic Circle.  For those who measure distance in screaming bald eagles instead of kilometers, that's about 28 miles.  Nunavut is a Canadian territory, formed in 1999 when the Northwest Territories were split roughly along ethnic lines.  Nunavut is primarily Inuit, who are a First Nations group that you may know by another name we're not saying.

(There are certainly Inuit outside of Nunavut, which you already know if you read Totally Covered, so, you can miss us with that).

Riit is the stage name of Rita Claire Mike-Murphy, who is a children's television show host. She hosted a show in English and Inuktitut called Anaana's Tent.  Here's the Season 1 promo in English.

And here it is in Inuktitut.

We don't make this stuff up.

In 2017, she released her debut album, and followed it in 2019 with the critically acclaimed Ataataga - a 2020 Juno Award nominee - which included the lead single "quamajaupik".  Her music is traditionally Euro-synth, except the lyrics are all in Inuktitut.  Literally translated to "you are shining", this is a love song that preserves her native First Nations language, which is exactly her intent.

As part of the release of this single, Riit also had a performance for CBC Music in which she debuted this song.....

The performance is just spectacular, and that's why we're doubling up today and not pushing Riit's Maple Leaf March debut to 2025.  

26 March 2024 - Carly Rae Jepsen - Beach House

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.

25 March 2024 - Charlotte Cardin - Confetti

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.

Actually, I think we mentioned this before.

The EP was centered around a French version of this song.

By the way, I am partial to this piano version - Cardin is an accomplished pianist, and performs her own song so well in such a stripped-down fashion.

(Edit: 25 March 2024) Of course, there is the version she performed at the Juno Awards...

24 March 2024 - Begonia - Marigold

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. 

23 March 2024 - Feist - Of Womankind

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!

22 March 2024 - Céline Dion - Pour que tu m'aimes encore

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.