It's rare that I have a theme for a week and blow it before the first post.
My theme was - Artists that I've Never Posted Before.
And, while it's true that I have personally not written a Kate Nash post, Scott did.
So, screw that theme for the week.
This song was a single from her fourth album, 2018's Yesterday Was Forever, a Kickstarter-funded project that combines her riot grrl tendencies with some indie folk-rock sounds. The album's themes revolve around her mental health, which she clearly addresses in this song AND the video.
And yes, this was released during her time on GLOW.
I mentioned that the album was Kickstarter-funded. It took her five years to record and release the album, and the songs didn't magically materialize in 2018. No, in fact, this is a live performance from 2016, one of her first of this song. It's a little different, but not dramatically.
But, like the song didn't materialize in 2018, it also didn't disappear, and she still performs it live - and it is a crowd favorite.
I am quite certain there was probably no doubt we were getting here.
But let's start with the obvious: this song makes heavy use of a sample from a classic song by Goyte and Kimbra (itself making heavy use of a sample) and I don't want people to forget the Kimbra part of this.
But this song is all Doechii, the 2025 Grammy Award winner for best rap album....and the song's social media following parlayed itself into her first Top 10 hit and the first huge hit of 2025. The song is happy and lighthearted and both anxious and energetic. Anxious energy - THAT'S what I was looking for.
However, a lot of you don't know that this isn't where the story started. It started with a young woman who left her job to focus on music and recorded a song in her bedroom in 2019.
Seriously. SHE RECORDED THIS IN HER BEDROOM SIX YEARS AGO.
Fast forward to 2023. Sleepy Hallow caught her song, and sampled it.
THAT got some attention, including the attention of social media.
So Doechii rerecorded her vocals and rereleased the song, and it blew up.
The hardest part of Maple Leaf March is the great music being made in the other 190-odd nations in the world.
And usually, if you look at my Spotify stats for March, my most listened to artist is almost always going to be Canadian.
Not this year.
2-10, absolutely Canadian.
#1 was an AMERICAN artist and I'm frankly a little surprised, but not a lot. My family would not be surprised, I would assume.
3 of my top 4 listened to songs in the last month are by one artist - Soccer Mommy.
And two of them are "Driver". Yeah, one of them is the stripped version from Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The third is this song, the opening track and 4th single from her experimental and groundbreaking 2020 album color theory, where she incorporated a bunch of chunky downstroked chords with a number of weird samples and unusual synth choices. They all work, by the way - the entire album is incredible, end-to-end, with this being my favorite of a great collection.
Hey, if you end up loving this song as much as I do, you can sing along with the official karaoke.
Anyway, you know we're coming at you with a couple of live versions, and this first one is something of a historic doozy. color theory was released at the end of February 2020. As part of the promotional tour, Soccer Mommy was supposed to do an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
Then a pandemic happened. And, well, NPR stopped hosting these. However, they had the idea to have artists do these concerts from their own homes..... and THIS was the FIRST one, in March 2020.
"bloodstream" was the first song she played and it's beautiful in its acoustic format..
Live music did return, and this performance from 2021 of the song - with Sophie in a cape! - is one of my favorites, truly illustrating the chunky guitar rifts.
Well, #MapleLeafMarch is over for another year. Guess it's time to get back to the American artists we all love.
Never mind that I'm writing this in January the same day I wrote this post. I should really be working on a Monday post. Oh well.
The reason I wanted to put this today is that my birthday is in March. And, because of what I do in March, I posted this song on my birthday. This year, as I was researching the other post, I realized that I was the same age as Laura Branigan was when she passed away in 2004. Which means I'm older than she was now.
This cover - of an Italian song - was her biggest hit by far, and at the time of its release, it spent 36 weeks on the Billboard chart, which, at the time, was longer than any song by a female artist had ever been there. It peaked at #2 in 1982, kept from the top spot by the juggernaut that was [checks notes] Toni Basil.
I mention it was an Italian cover. The original was performed by Umberto Tozzi, who also was co-writer on the song.
It should sound really familiar, but lyrically, it's very different. This is a love song. Branigan's version was about a woman out of control.
Tozzi DID record an English version of his song, with lyrics translated by Jonathan King. THIS retained the love song aspect of the lyrics.
It's not the same song exactly as the Italian version, either - it's very much an imaginary woman here.
By the way, Jonathan King recorded his version as well, and it was a minor UK hit. It's barely worth mentioning. His songwriting was good, though.
But back to Laura Branigan.
In January 2019, the St. Louis Blues were in last place in the NHL Western Conference, so they.... adopted a theme song and went on a 19-game winning streak. They ended up making the playoffs, and won the Stanley Cup in seven games that year.
So, yeah, "Play Gloria!" is a thing in St. Louis now.
I end with Pixl Girl, but really, I'm pretty sure Pixl Girl is Sophie Powers. I just can't be 100% sure, but really, Ms. Powers has had snippets of this song on her social media for months. It was only a matter of time before she released it.
And she - well, whoever - released this portait-mode video in landscape, which is a weird choice, but also, visually interesting.
The song is really about people needing to be told to, well, shut the fuck up. Listen closely, French people.
The reality is, Sophie Powers appeared on American Idol this month, performing this song for the judges. THAT is why this was a MUST-post.
Luke, shut the fuck up.
But also, she declares that she's literally Canadian at 1:28.
OK, fine, one more. But I promise you, I'm not writing anything else for March. This is the last one until tomorrow. (Edit: I changed my mind on this but that doesn't mean Nemahsis does not deserve your attention).
Nemahsis is a proud hijab-wearing Palestinian-Canadian woman who is making fantastic music. She won a couple of Junos last night, including one for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
She frequently sings about the hijab and the unique struggles of being Muslim in Canada in the 21st century. That is NOT what this song is about, though. It's about a girl who liked a shirt she saw her friend wearing and, well, she got her own.
Anyway, she's young and cool and different and I encourage you to check her out.
With literally one day left in #MapleLeafMarch, I just could NOT ignore this guy. He won a JUNO Award last night - the FAN'S CHOICE award, in a stunning upset. He also had some things to say.
Fun fact: The Beaches had won an award earlier in the evening and he was the presenter. So, guess they are trading awards :D
Anyway, besides not being a fan of Elon Musk, bbno$ (pronounced "baby no money") is a pretty accomplished and prolific hip hop musician in his own right. It was hard picking a song for today, but I felt one of his 2025 singles - this song, which heavily samples "Low Rider" - would be an excellent choice. It is a fun and energetic single that deserves your attention.
And yes, he's touring, so there are live versions ALREADY! And they are just as much fun and just as energetic, if not more so.
It was two weeks ago today that I got all maudlin about how much of a bummer this March had been. Normally, I am spending the month enjoying Canadian music, but in this month of #ElbowsUp, it's been more difficult.
Also, I was at the point of making some tough decisions about artists to leave out and artists to include this month. There were some that I had wanted to post that I still hadn't - and a lot of those are coming in 2026. That's right. I'm not stopping this. I seriously, TODAY, have enough material to go through at least 2028 without breaking a sweat.
Then Spotify delivered me two gifts. The first, I posted about on Saturday. The second is this ABSOLUTE gem, which seems to be at least semiautobiographical, by Once a Tree. Co-written by Hayden and Jayli Wolf (who are Once A Tree), it is a mature and compelling song that is the best new music I've heard this year.
(By the way, they also did this for me - I'd like to think it's for me, anyway - last March)
So, I'll be promoting the hell out of this, the last post of #MapleLeafMarch 2025. PLEASE, share this one. PLEASE, tell your friends about this amazing song and this incredible duo.
We've giving you a bonus post today, because no one has won more Juno Awards than Anne Murray, with 26. This Canadian Music Hall of Famer is quite probably the biggest thing musically coming from Canada.
Tonight, she is being awarded only the second JUNO Lifetime Achievement Award. The first guy who won it was Pierre Juneau, the guy the awards are LITERALLY named after.
Born in Nova Scotia, I'd love to tell you that she wrote this song, but, as we know from Family Guy and Stewie Griffin's reaction, it was written by Gene MacLellan.
Yes, she voiced that.
And she sang Gene's beautiful song, which he wrote in twenty minutes on Prince Edward Island. That's not a joke. Anyway, she sang it to the top of both the pop and country charts in the US and Canada. It was the first US gold record awarded to a Canadian female solo artist.
And really, listen to the lyrics here. It is a sad song. It's a lonely song.
Here she is singing it live on David Frost's show in 1972. The accompanying music is very light, so it is pretty close to acapella, but she was equal to the task.
In her day, Anne Murray was an icon. In 1980 - when she was still making hits that my mother LOVED, she appeared on the Muppet Show performing her huge 1970 hit.
Well, here we are. Nearing the end of March and we've got the JUNOS tonight.
I might be the American most excited about this Canadian award show.
I knew that, for today, I wanted to 1) feature a nominated artist and 2) feature a not-so-well-known artist.
This song accomplished that in spades, because this song features not one, but TWO nominated artists - in the same category! Let's break it down.
Let's start with Snotty Nose Rez Kids. They are nominated in THREE categories - Rap Album/EP of the Year (RED FUTURE - the album this song is from), Rap Single of the Year ("BBE", not this song), and Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year (also for RED FUTURE).
Big Braid Energy, by the way.
Members of the Haisla Nation First Nations community in British Columbia (presumably the "Rez" in their name), the duo have been making acclaimed hip hop music for about a decade - with a total of six Juno nominations and two Polaris Award shortlists. This year, they are going to star in a CBC comedy as fictionalized versions of themselves.
Tia Wood grew up in the Saddle Creek Cree Nation in central Alberta. An acclaimed artist in her own right, she garnered her first Juno nomination in the Contemporary Indigineous Artist or Group of the Year category, for her EP Pretty Red Bird.
I love discovering new artists I have never heard.
LŪN is not an artist like that.
You see, I accidentally discovered LŪN last year, when Lights released her new single in September 2024. As I was reading up on that, I was surprised to hear that Lights would not be touring AS LIGHTS for a while. Which I thought - well, that seemed strange. Lights is literally her government name. Granted, not from birth - I get that - but legally.
As I read people's comments, they speculated that there would be a LŪN tour, and it was then that I made the connection.
LŪN is Lights. Lights is LŪN.
As LŪN, she takes on something of a fox persona - this isn't a joke and this video should make it clear - and she mostly and usually obscures her face (but not consistently - let's just say this isn't a secret). Also, as much as Lights gravitates towards the poppy electronic spectrum, LŪN is a bit more hard EDM.
For those who have read Skin & Earth, you know LŪN is a character in there - I guess she's closer to an NPC, a musician that is well-known in that universe. Lights is just occasionally playing the part. And the part is compelling, and I'm here for it.
Also, as I have previously stated, Lights IS touring, AS Lights, so not sure where that information came from.
Sum 41 is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this year.
They deserve it.
I have to admit, I've never really been a fan of theirs.
But the fact is, they've made hard-rocking compelling music for more than thirty years.
That ends on Sunday, March 30, 2025, when they will be playing their farewell performance at their induction ceremony, at the Juno Awards.
So, on the occasion of their induction and breakup, I decided it was time to give them a second listen.
This was one of their first singles, and the only one to chart on the US pop charts. It also topped the US Modern Rock charts - the first of three times they would do so - in 2001. It was be 22 years before they would do that again.
So yeah. After going back and listening to them with fresh ears, I'm more of a fan. I can appreciate the music they made and the time they made it.
Hey, remember when MTV did Spring Break and Carson Daly hosted TRL?
So do we.
We're going to guess that Sum 41 are going to close their set with this song on Sunday. This post may end up being updated to reflect that.
But also, they played it there in 2002, when they were nominated (and won an award, although not for this song).
I told my sister when she saw The Beaches last month that I'd be posting this one so I guess I have to.
Nah, the song is great. I was posting it anyway.
Written by the band after the huge worldwide success of "Blame Brett", it's about the pressure of being thrust into that role of being a role model.
And yes, there's a real fan named Jocelyn. And yes, she's a PhD student. From Iowa. She's a fan of the band and follows them on Instagram. The band wanted to tie this song to real life, and so they chose a fan.... named Jocelyn.
As a gift, my sister actually recorded the song when she saw them live last month, so here's that video. Yeah, they're looking for any Jocelyn in the crowd.
Yep, but I did it half-assed. And this song being such a Canadian classic, I felt it was time to revisit it, alone this time.
Written and produced by Mumble C, aka The Burger Pimp, aka Marc Costanzo, aka the guy singing the song, the song is an ode to slacking off. Ironically, given the fact that they share a scooter and vocals on this, it was written at a time that Marc and his older sister Sharon were not speaking to each other.
The dual vocals were due to the fact that Marc really wanted to make a new "Don't You Want Me". Ultimately, his song was a success in its own right, without the need for so much synth.
Shockingly, the band directed this video themselves. It was recorded one afternoon in Daytona Beach, FL at a cost of $100,000. It was recorded over sevem afternoons because a large portion of that $100,000 was spent on alcohol the band consumed the night before, and they needed the morning to sleep off their hangovers and the evening to get drunk.
Seriously. They had so much booze they broke an elevator at their hotel - by exceeding greatly the WEIGHT limit. So they shot between 1 and 5pm.
The song was absolutely the greatest song of the summer of any summer. It was not, however, the official Song of the Summer declared by Billboard in 1999 - "Genie In A Bottle", for the record - but anyone who thinks this song wasn't everywhere in the summer of 1999 doesn't remember the summer of 1999.
But, then again, Len were probably drunk all summer, too.
Len was never really much of a band - it was just something Marc did in his garage and occassionally dragged his sister and best mates into.
So, really, any time Marc performs this song, it's a Len performance of this song - like this performance he did last year with Brooklyn-based Charly Bliss (who did a fantastic cover in their own right).
I thought about not posting any Cœur de Pirate this year.
Then I remembered that I LITERALLY OPENED the first Maple Leaf March with three of her songs.
And one of those posts was quite unusual, and for the rest of this post, I am going to ATTEMPT to replicate what I did in that post.
Plongeons dans l'univers envoûtant de "Dans la nuit", une pièce maîtresse de l'album En cas de tempête, ce jardin sera fermé de Cœur de Pirate. Cette chanson, fruit d'une collaboration inattendue avec le rappeur montréalais Loud, nous offre un mélange captivant de pop mélancolique et de rap introspectif.
Les paroles de "Dans la nuit" nous transportent dans un monde de relations complexes, où l'apparence et la réalité s'entrechoquent. Cœur de Pirate explore avec finesse les nuances de l'amour et de la solitude, évoquant ces moments où l'on se sent à la fois utilisé et utilisateur. Cette dualité se reflète dans la musique elle-même, où la mélodie hantée de Cœur de Pirate se marie parfaitement avec le flow incisif de Loud.
Musicalement, la chanson crée une atmosphère réflexive, presque onirique. Les notes de piano caractéristiques de Cœur de Pirate s'entrelacent avec des beats plus urbains, créant un paysage sonore qui oscille entre douceur et tension. Cette fusion des genres souligne parfaitement les thèmes de la chanson, incarnant cette danse constante entre connexion et déconnexion.
"Dans la nuit" marque une évolution dans le style de Cœur de Pirate, tout en restant fidèle à son talent pour capturer les émotions les plus intimes. C'est une invitation à plonger dans les profondeurs de nos relations, à explorer ces moments d'ombre et de lumière qui définissent nos connexions humaines. Une œuvre qui résonne longtemps après la dernière note, nous laissant contempler nos propres expériences dans le miroir de ses paroles poignantes.
Les deux sont montés sur scène lors des Juno Awards 2019 pour interpréter la chanson ensemble.
Au final, c'est SA chanson, et elle peut l'interpréter toute seule. Elle le fait ici, au piano.
I bet you didn't know this song was Canadian. But yes, it is.
This Montreal pianist had a #3 hit in the US in 1979 with his instumental classic. And it came with a very clear mistake - a few notes are missing in that third repeated introduction. However, Mills could not afford to rerecord it, so the mistake stayed.
By the way, he recorded it in 1974. It took that long to get it released.
The song is recorded in C# Major so it would sound like a music box - specifically, his daughter's broken music box.
Oh yes, Frank Mills is still with us and still performs this song. It still sounds like it always did.
And, of course, musician. This was her debut single, in 1988. It ended up being a hit ACROSS Canada, which is a rare feat for a francophone song..... probably because it contained a few English words in the title.
It's a pretty racy song, to be honest - she ends up breaking up witht he cowboy even though he makes love like a god. This is not my intepretation. It is literally what she says. Well, also, he cheats on her, so she says... bye bye to her..... cowboy.
It's catchy as hell and you should hear it.
The song got a remix and a US release in 1990, and, well, Canadians love it. Americans just don't listen to French songs, even great ones. Still, it's a French song that got worldwide exposure, and that's great.
CBC Music has been a great resource for this blog for several years. Just this week, they released a list of songs that were hits ONLY in Canada.
ONLY in Canada.
Yes, there is a rule in Canada that a certain percentage of radio-broadcasted music has to be by Canadian artists, which makes Canada unique in promoting home-grown artists - and also makes a whole bunch of artists that are known ONLY in Canada.
This 2001 single - the debut by this Niagara Falls, Ontario pop-rock duo - was, indeed, a top 10 hit in Canada. It did get the song a Juno nomination (losing to Nickelback) and also a nomination for best new group, which it also lost.
The band broke up in 2003 to pursue other things, but they did reunite once, in 2016, at a Niagara Falls beer festival, and of course they performed their biggest hit.
This folk group from Newfoundland and Labrador had a few hits in the 1990s - hits that you wouldn't know if you didn't live in Canada.
Some of them were covers, to be sure, but they did original music, too. This song, from 1997, was among their biggest hits and it was written by members of the group. According to co-author Alan Doyle, it was inspired by a Vancouver street musician who had gotten beaten up and robbed, and then went right back to performing in the same place.
The song was co-opted by Conservative Party politicians in the 2000s, but the band filed a copyright claim to stop that. Because they don't need their song politicized.
It may not be so clear from the official video that they were a folk group, but this live performance should make that clear.
In 1989, he released his debut album, Symphony In Effect. He would release this classic as his first single, ever.
It hit the US top 40 chart and was a top 15 US rap hit. It is the first time a Canadian rap artist ever did either of those things.
In Canada, he sold more than 50,000 copies of this - which is their gold certification. He was the Canadian rap artist to do this.
But also, the song kicks some old-school ass. It's a great song, and even though he proudly declares he's not American, at the end of the day, that doesn't matter.
It is, of course his biggest hit, so it makes sense that he's still performing it all these years later. Here is the Canadian Music Hall of Famer performing the song last year as part of the coast-to-coast Canada Day celebrations.
He's still got the mad rhymes.
I mentioned he was a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and that's great. He was inducted in 2024 at the Juno Award ceremony and, yes, of course he closed with this song.
THIS might be the biggest oversight of this page so far. This song, when I first heard it on CFNY in the early 1990s, changed my life. It was lighthearted, fun, and lyrically clever. And you KNOW this post is going to be a doozy!!!
It also changed the way I looked at green dresses.
Written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson - the two vocalists - which should suprise no one - it takes a call-and response style and adds a lot of eccentric romantic purchases, many of them references to REAL purchases that Michael Jackson made. You never connected that set of dots, did you? But yeah, he bought Joseph Merrick's remains and a monkey. Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
The dialog pieces are different in every live performance because, no joke, they're made up as they go along. It's just banter.
The song was never released as a single, but became a HUGE HUGE hit anyway.
I can't even justify a studio version of this song for this post. I start with this 1996 live performance, where they react to the rides around them.
In 2000, the band performed the song at Farm Aid and were complementary to fine organic foods.
Then there's this Page/Robertson performance where they pick on the TV host in a stripped-down manner.
Then there is this 2008 performance where they have a special guest star on accordion.
Of course, Steven Page left the group and it's never been the same, but there's still a lot of banter. The whole band gets into it now. This show happened to be in Cincinatti, Ohio. If this concert happened today, it would probably cost 25% more.
But really, it was their reunion at the 2018 Juno Awards that got me. The shoutout to Maestro Fresh-Wes was a nice touch.
When I first saw this pop up on my Spotify last year, I had to do a double take. You see, I recognized the artist's name.... but not from music.
One of my favorite TV series of all time is a show from the 2010s called Orphan Black. Seek it out - I highly recommend it. Evelyne Brochu was the name of an actress on the show (for those who know the show, she played Delphine). And yes, it's the same Evelyne Brochu, I found out in my research. The even wilder thing I found out? She's Canadian - growing up outside of Montreal and a native speaker of French in Quebec (although also learning English at a very young age). I always thought she was French.
She did reprise her role of Delphine in Orphan Black: Echoes, which was also good but not quite matching the original.
But let's talk about "Paris". A sincere love letter to the city, Brochu sings the song with a sincerity and a brightness. It also seems like she recorded the video on her cell phone - because she did. She was the cinematographer.
Her performance is just as genuine and sweet live as it is recorded.
This has been the toughtest Maple Leaf March so far for me.
You see, I live in the United States, but I have been a long time fan of Canada. In 2011, one of my first attempts at blogging, I wrote an article about several of the things I love about Canada. It really needs an update - I have, for example, had poutine on several occasions and been to many poutineries at this point, and I did spend about 6 months in Calgary more than the States, so I have kind of lived in Canada, too.
But hell, I had pictures of Canadians in my locker at school as a teenager.
OK, Canadian. Singular.
And it was Carling Bassett.
I was 16. Don't judge me.
But this month, the United States President, Donald Trump, has escalated a trade and culture war with Canada by
Imposing significant tarriffs on Canadian goods when there once was none
Requiring Canadians - including snowbirds who winter in Florida - in the United States to register with the US government
Continually joking, but not actually joking, about annexing Canada as the 51st state, ignoring the fact that Canada has TEN unique provinces and 3 territories (also unique)
Blamed Canada for the fentanyl crisis, when in fact, very little fentanyl enters the United States from Canada.
In short, this administration has damaged one of the most enviable partnerships - the one between Canada and the United States - and I hope this isn't irreparable, but it's probably going to be a few years.
This has made me sad on so many levels. On an economic level, Canada is our biggest trade partner and the United States has now demolished that. On a foreign policy level, Canada has had our back in many conflicts. On an entertainment level, Toronto has been a stand in for New York City because it WAS cheaper to film there - I doubt that's going to continue.
On a personal level, I have many excellent friendships with Canadians that have been damaged because my President is being an asshole. There's no other word for what he's doing. He's being an unprovoked, egotistical, misguided asshole to Canada.
So, to my Canadian friends, I don't blame you for keeping your elbows up, and don't for a second believe that the current administation at all reflects the love and respect the American people have for our Canadian neighbors.
Today's post is one of the last I wrote for this month, because it's been so hard, and because I needed a great song that sounded vaguely Irish and that completely misunderstands the geography of Saskatchewan (the nearest shore to Regina is about 140 km away), and it is a great and funny song. And yeah, because of the current world situation, this song is getting the shaft - I mean, I pretty much guaranteed the thumbnail most people are going to see is going to be Carling Bassett - but listen to it anyway.
A video by The Stellas with their daughters in the back seat of the car. Really, about their daughters in the back seat of that car.
This video would have been pre-Nashville. This means that The Stellas were driving with their then-anonymous daughters who happen to be named Lennon and Maisy - which, of course, we know because Nashville (and the fact that Lennon was a Juno Award nominee a couple of years ago herself and Maisy just did a movie with Aubrey Plaza - My Old Ass - that was pretty well recieved and earned her an Independent Spirit Award just last month).
But even though the Stellas are talking about their daughters, can we just take a minute to appreciate the beautiful country harmonies they bring?
But, in all seriousness, Girl Prometheus was one of my 2 or 3 favorite albums of 2024. It is something of a meloncholic masterpiece, with a LOT of great songs.
Honestly, I was always going to post something by Flower Face this month - but I was going to go older. Last week, I was listening to this album again and this song jumped out at me, and I knew what I had to do.
Also, listen closely. She name-checks herself. See if you can catch it.
The cool thing is, a couple of months after Girl Prometheus was released, Flower Face released an all-instumental version of the album. She's a unique multi-instrumental talent, so this makes so much sense - but also, it is incredibly cool to hear the music stand on its own.
Yep. Literally more than any other artist. More than any of our Hall of Fame entries.
But, she's got a LOT of output that is excellent. She has released five full length albums, plus a bunch of EPs, a few reimagined versions of those albums which in their own rights are full length albums, a large number of collaborations, and, for good measure, a charity nighttime instrumental synthwave album to benefit Black Lives Matter Vancouver. Every one of them is a banger.
Lights's sixth full length album, A6, will be released in early May. She's already begun to release singles from the album - this is the second, and it's arguably the best she's sounded.
I consider this to be her breakthrough song - it was of course a hit in Canada, and also did hit the US Billboard Hot 100 - the first time she had done that.
Written by McLachlan, the song is inspired by creepy fan letters she received - and many of them are quoted in the song. One of the "fans" sued McLachlan for using his words and inspiration without his consent - but the case never made it to trial.
The song worked. She stopped getting fan letters like that.
Anyway, it is natural that this would be her breakthrough song. It was full of emotion and was still pretty dark while sounding sunny.
McLachlan actually made two music videos for this song. The one above is the one Americans saw on MTV. The one below is the one Canadians saw on MuchMusic. I kind of think Americans wouldn't really get the one below - it's biblical and a lot of videos that use biblical references get backlash in the States - so I understand.
If you are one of the lucky people who bought her album Fumbling Towards Ecstacy, you know that this song actually appears TWICE on that album. A piano version appears as a hidden track. Go ahead - put the CD in. We'll wait.
Anyway, this live version is more reminiscent of the 2nd version of the song.
Wanna feel old? This song is 32 years old - released in 1993. And yet, here she is in 2024 - when the song was 31 years old. And, rather than piano, she's playing rhythm guitar. And it still sounds amazing.
There's just not enough time in the month to post everything I want to, but c'mon - I get to make the rules.
And for this gem, from their 2021 EP Losers Weepers, is just brilliant enough to make me want to bend them, hard. It's a chipper breakup song - and it really shows their depth.
But, at the last minute, I moved them to the best spot of the whole year - my birthday, this year.
Here they are, performing the song in an quieter set, more as a ballad. I absolutely love these guys, and can't help but think they're going to be huge soon.
This commercial parody from the late 1980s was actually banned from MTV, mostly because MTV didn't want to piss off Coke, Pepsi, or Budweiser. Also, Michael Jackson threatened to sue them.
MuchMusic, which is essentially Canadian MTV for those who don't know what it is (don't @ me. I know what it is. Most of my readers wouldn't), did NOT have the same concerns and started playing the video. It ended up being a hit and MTV reconsidered its decision.
It went on to win Video of the Year at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, which was both ironic and amazing, because it's a great video. And song. We haven't even talked about the song.
And no, Michael Jackson never did end up suing them over this video.
Because his label blocks the actual video from being posted, here it is side-by-side with its ad parodies
I have to admit, Neil Young is such a ubiquitous musician, he feels like he belongs to no country.
But he is not only proudly Canadian, he is a Canadian Music Hall of Famer.
And he put on some great live shows, like this one, where he did an acoustic version of this song.
Last year, Elisapie's fantastic album Inuktitut was nominated for a Juno.... and WON. Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.
This year, the SAME ALBUM is nominated for TWO Junos. And, I looked it up. The eligibility periods of the 2024 and 2025 Junos overlap by a couple of months, and this album - arguably my favorite of 2023 - happened to have been released in the overlap window.
I am rooting for this to win Album of the Year. The album is great and deserves the attention. It's also nominated in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category, and I think it WILL win that one.
This song was not on the initial release of the album, but was released as a single, with video, on the occasion of the first anniversary of its release. Yes, it was written by Sheryl Crow, but she didn't write her song in Inuktitut... and this version has a very different, dreamier feel than the original.
Yep, original Canadian jazz has made it to Wicked Guilty Pleasures.
Nominated for a Juno this year for her album Hello! How Are You?, Gyorgy is a talented jazz vocalist and songwriter from Calgary.
Also, it is, for some reason, pronounced "George".
This song was from her 2022 album Featuring, which also won a Juno (and that wasn't her first). The song was written by Gyorgy, in the style of, in her words, the "Great American Songbook". I suspect she means North American. Isn't it weird that people from the United States call themselves American and the rest of the world has gone along with the identity of two continents being given to one county's residents? I really need to stop it with these political tangents.
AR Paisley dreams of winning a Grammy, which is why he listens to Grammy-award winning music.
He's nominated for a Juno Award this year (Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year), so he's off to a flying start.
Born Amarit Rehal, and a native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, his hip-hop takes a page from Jay-Z's playbook, but also combines English and Punjabi rhymes. He also counts Ludacris as an influence. I hear it.
Anyway, he's making good, original rap music that deserves your attention, so here it is.
This is not a song title most Americans know. They do, however, know "The Kids In The Hall Theme Song". And sure, most Americans don't know about this Calgary-Toronto instrumental band with punk roots and a surf sound.
But I didn't rearrange my whole blog posts for March 2025 just to highlight a long-overdue song to highlight. No, I wrote this post as a tribute - to great Canadian television and the great impact that Canadian entertainment has had on American culture.
In an era where the United States President is for some idiotic reason imposing a 25% tarriff on goods from Canada, starting a moronic trade war, I felt like we needed a reminder of what Canada has given the States (Update: I'm told the tarriff is paused).
By the way - the band performed it live for EVERY KITH show.
SMOASP broke up in 1996 but they did reunite, and wow, did they sound great live in 2012.
By the way, Kids In The Hall did reuinte as well, and my sister saw them not too long ago. Let's just say they didn't forget their theme song.
I promise you this isn't going to be a nothing-but-Canadian music blog. While I could VERY EASILY do that, that's not happening here. There's SO MUCH. It's hard for me to prune stuff every March - so tough that I have sincerely considered a Canadian music blog.
And I wrote this post in July.
But yeah, these four women formed their rap group in Toronto in 2016. You met one of them last year - after they broke up in 2019, these ladies built solo careers in their own rights.
Guys, these ladies are bad-ass. Check them out.
There are a LOT of live versions of these songs, but the best was one of the first, which they did for CBC.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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....
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.
I don't know why, but I have been in a Kim Petras mood lately. As a child, she wanted to be a fashion designer. It's kind of interesting where she ended up.
This was her first single on a major label, in 2021, and was a hit in US clubs and, weirdly, in Japan.
Of course she performs it live. Here's the first time she did that, from Lollapalooza 2021.
I can't say when I went from absolutely despising this song to liking it, but it happened in the last few months. And it's the chorus that gets me - absolutely gives me chills. Adele has always had a huge voice, and when she hits the chorus, it just hits for me.
Critics love the song, too. It was the 2017 Song and Record of the Year winner at the Grammys.
But what I think got it for me was the version she did with Jimmy Fallon, the Roots, and classroom instruments.
Spotify now has an AI DJ, who they call X. Usually, X nails my musical tastes pretty closely. but sometimes, he goes off the reservation.
This song started off like that. I like Megan Thee Stallion, but I wouldn't say she's a go to.
But X kept serving this song up a lot.
Over and over.
And it grew on me.
A clear diss track that does not name its target, who is, in my opinion, clearly Nicki Minaj, this song very quickly hit #1 on the US pop charts - the first time she's been there as a solo artist and her third trip overall - and was a worldwide hit.
And before anyone starts with me. Yes, I see the video is billed to Megan Thee Stallion and Tina Snow. I hope it's clear they are the same person.
By the way, those rhymes that she's spittin' so fast?
This song from a movie soundtrack was BY FAR Dan Hartman's biggest solo hit. BY FAR. It reached #6 on the US charts and was a big hit elsewhere.
Written by Hartman and co-produced by him alongside Jimmy Iovine, the song in this version did not actually appear in the movie.It was a stipulation in Hartman's contract that his version be released as a single if any single was released. That worked out well for him.
Notice how I have not mentioned the movie? That's because it's hardly worth mentioning. It was not a great movie. It was a HUGE flop at the box office. History has forgotten what this movie was about.
Two videos were made for this song. In this one, Hartman is hitting on actress Joyce Hyser.
In this one, the fictional band from the movie is "performing" with Hartman's vocal.
Streets of Fire. Are you happy? Do you even remember this was a movie?
Gee, Happy Valentine's Day. Why are we featuring such a bummer-titled song?
Because this song - the one you see below - is a cover of a song that came in 4th in the 1967 Eurovision competition. This cover by Paul Mauriat - an orchestral easy-listening version of a song that no one in the United States really knew - ended up topping the US Pop Charts for two weeks.
This remains the most popular Eurovision song to ever appear on the US Pop Charts.
I kind of love how the kids try to dance to this on American Bandstand. It's really not a song that fits that show, but it was a huge, HUGE hit.
The original was performed by an artist named Vicky (Leandros) at the 1967 Eurovision competition. This Greek singer - 17 at the time - represented Luxenbourg. How that works is beyond me - but I don't make the Eurovision rules.
Anyway, the song came in 4th.
She would go on to record the song in several languages, including English. In my opinion, not as good as the French, it is still a beautiful song.
She also recorded it in Dutch.
Luxembourg still loves her song, by the way. Here she is performing a multilingual version on their annual song competition in 2024!
Riding the wave of "Love Is Blue" fever, A/C superstar, Franco-American singer, wife of Andy Williams, and later convicted killer Claudine Longet (it was negligent homicide) recorded a version that did, indeed, hit the US Pop Charts. It would be her highest charting pop hit in the United States.
It's a pretty version.
The song hit the charts a couple of additional times. In 1968, Manny Kellem, His Orchestra and Chorus, brought it all the way to #96 on the US Pop Charts, although it was a huge adult contemporary radio hit.
Again, it's pretty. Again, it was Manny's only Hot 100 appearance.
Al Martino's version hit #57 in 1968.
It was by no means his biggest hit on the Hot 100, but it was a hit, and despite its different feel than the others, included the classic harpsichord riff.
Weirdly, so did Jeff Beck's version, which was more guitar-driven but didn't forget the most famous harpichord riff in music history.
This was not a US hit, but it was a hit in the UK and Ireland.
This version by Kim Kwang Suk is definitely a first for this blog.
First North Korean version.
Seriously. NORTH Korean. And French.
But we come back to that big hit - the one that made it a worldwide sensation.... the second biggest instrumental hit song of all time ("Theme From 'A Summer Place'" to answer your inevitable question).
It is a work of absolute art. Paul Mauriat took a great song and made it so much better.
