5 March 2025 - Tate McRae - she's all i wanna be

Tate McRae was nominated for something like five Junos this year.  In fact, she's nominated for EXACTLY five. That's a lot, for those of you who don't know the Junos so well.  

Well, last year was kind of a fever dream for her.   

Her words.

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Well, her new album was released on February 21st, and it took all sorts of restraint to not post about her that day and start MLM a week early.   

This song isn't from her new album, So Close To What, or even her last one, Think Later.  This is from her first full length album, I Used To Think I Could Fly. Co-written by McRae, this song went through a lot of mixes and iterations to get to this final form.  

This is probably the song that made McRae a pop star.  It was sad - adressing real-life feelings of envy and jeolousy that she was experiencing - but also upbeat and punky.  

I'm not gonna lie - I love that the audience knows the words THIS well.

4 March 2025 - Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling

Look, it is now a #MapleLeafMarch tradition.

We have to post Carly Rae Jepson.  

She is, after all, Canada's sweetheart. 

Today's feature was an outtake from her 2015 album Emotion.  It got cut from the album for its cinematic over-the-top feeling, but was slated for a follow-up EP. 

Then came the French animated movie Ballerina, which was called Leap in the US. Jepsen was actually a voice actress in that movie, and also contributed the heart of the movie with this song.  

Like the movie, it ended up being a pretty solid hit song for her. 

And yes. The "Lucky Star" sample was intentional. 

She did make a real adult video for the song, too.   

You know we love the live versions.   

But this one is different.  

It's from a Carnival Cruise.

And it's perfect.

I think we all know that she's a singer-songwriter, and that means, she can actually SING her songs, in a stripped down setting, and they still slap.

3 March 2025 - The Beaches ft. Lights - Let's Go

From their 2021 EP, Future Lovers, we kick off our fifth Maple Leaf March by righting a couple of wrongs we did last year.

We put The Beaches on a weekend. We moved Lights to April!

But hey! we didn't fuck with Carly Rae Jepsen!

Anyway, the breakout stars of late 2023 - who won a couple of Junos last year - teamed up with multiple-Juno winner Lights (who we are guessing is going to be nominated for a Juno this year as of this writing, but as of the time we are writing this, which is mid-2024, we don't know that yet) (Edit: she wasn't) for this song, which the band co-wrote with her.  

It's a bop. Check it out.  

Oh yes, Lights did show up at a Beaches show and yes, they did it live. 

And yes, the crowd went bezerk.  Rightfully so.  Hell, I would have!

2 March 2025 - Les Cowboys Fringants - La fin du show

This is probably the most exposure Les Cowboys Fringants have gotten outside of Quebec, but they deserve a wider reach from their néo-trad musical style that draws on folk and rock influences. 

The reigning champions of the Juno Awards Francophone category, the group released new music in 2024 to accompany a musical, Pub Royal, that featured their music.  That album is absolutely a 2025 nominee, by the way. 

This was the last album to feature Karl Tremblay, the band's lead vocalist.  He passed away from prostate cancer in 2023.  The song does feature vocals by Tremblay, and was written by blacground vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jean-François Pauzé.

I hope it's clear by the title that this was probably the last thing Tremblay recorded. It is a POWERFUL performance. 

1 March 2025 - Sophie Powers - Better On Mute

Welcome to March.

Did I choose March because it starts with the same letter as "Maple Leaf"?  Maybe.  More likely I started it because the Junos take place in March - for now.  It seems to be slowly moving to April.   

Which makes it even weirder that I started the month with never-nominated Sophie Powers, a Toronto native who has made great music tailor-made for the TikTok generation.  Co-written by the artist (no, Powers is not her real last name and the credits tell me that), the song is very much a declaration of independence by an musician who is making bold, different music from a nation who refuses to be annexed by the United States.

THAT'S as political as I will ever get here. 

She has performed a stripped-down version of the song live, which shows me that she's both not manufactured (a little cringe, in fact) and is a uniquely talented performer. 

25 February 2025 - Benson Boone - Beautiful Things

I at first discounted this song.  It's a little more country than my tastes skew - no knock on country.  Modern country just doesn't bring me much pleasure.  So, after about thirty seconds, I turned the song off.   

In the leadup to the Grammys a couple of weeks ago, where Boone was nominated for a couple of awards, snippets of the song led with the chorus - and that's what hooked me.   It's a country-rock hybrid that ended up being a huge worldwide hit, and it took a couple of nominations to get my attention.  

It's not surprising that it changes tone so dramatically.  It began life as two separate songs, with co-author Jack LaFrantz recommended combining.  

For some reason, I find that Grammys performance even more dramatic.  I don't know if it's the tearaway suit or the flip off the piano.... 

24 February 2025 - David Guetta & Bebe Rexha - I'm Good (Blue)

Where does a song cross the line into being a cover?

Well, this song started off life in 2017, as a fun studio exercise built off an Eiffel 65 sample but never intended for release.

Fast forward to 2022, when TikTok was a thing and the snippet leaked.  Guetta and Rexha very quickly finished their song and, well, instant hit.  It ended up being her biggest hit everywhere in the world EXCEPT for the United States, where it was a huge hit but she's had bigger that we'll probably never mention here again. 

Anyway, the song clearly takes the beat from "Blue (Da Ba Bee)" but these are, for the most part, brand new lyrics.  And yeah, the song is a LOT of fun.   

The video above was largely compiled from a live appearance Rexha and Guetta made together, where they seemed to be having a LOT of fun.  Here is that live performance. 

Not that she needs David Guetta to have a good time. 

Even with a slowed-down version and a full orchestra, she seems to still be having fun.  Also, the pipes! You can hear the helper tracks on the other performances, but not here.   She's singing the hell out of this.