Chavril’s Rockin’ Union

We normally don’t post entries with regards to the personal lives of Canadian recording artists but because this one is so high profile, it deserves a mention.

What happens when a small town Alberta boy collaborates with a small town Ontario girl on her album? Romance of course! We’re talkin’ Chavril.

Avril Lavigne and Nickelback both performed during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Earlier this year, Nickelback’s lead singer Chad Kroeger offered to help out on Avril’s next studio album. The two hit it off musically and then some.

The announcement of their engagement has created a feeding frenzy for gossip columnists, got the haters doing their thing, broken many hearts, and lock and loaded the paparazzi.  But for us, we are thrilled and happy for them.

They are two of the best-selling recording artists in the world, and now they will collaborate on more than just music.

Wishing all the best to them.

 

Video of the Week – Garou’s “Le jour se lève”

Diamond-selling, internationally renowned soul singer Garou is releasing a brand new studio album, Rhythm and Blues, on September 24.  We’ll talk about it in more detail later.  But for now, we present the lead single “Le jour se lève” in a beautifully shot music video which was released a couple weeks ago.  You can keep up with the developments on his…

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Toronto’s MADRID Is Out to Sea

Every so often, we highlight a Canadian artist we feel is deserving of more attention than they are receiving.  Adam Perry, Duncan Christie, and Eric Lightfoot were off to a good start in 2003.  Naming themselves MADRID, they released their debut album Warm Waters which drew immediate attention from the other side of the Atlantic.  Their music was featured on the BBC World News hailing their work as “the indie record Boards of Canada never made”.  (Boards of Canada are a band from Scotland).

Their sound has been described as a blend of electronic, psychedelic, and shoestep.  To us they sound like a mixture of Tones on Tail / Love & Rockets and Slowdive (that’s meant to be a big compliment).  They were admired so much by the likes of internationally acclaimed electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss that he remixed one of their songs featured in their followup 2007 EP First Message.  Last year, Madrid came out with LP Original Message which the CBC says “combines club-worthy dance tracks and late-night slow jams that raise both the hands and the heart. … The result is not only inspired, but stunning. Their unforgettable electronic sound continually proves that MADRID are clearly ahead of their time. “

As always, we like to let the music speak for itself.  Below is the gorgeous ”Out to Sea” from their latest album.

MADRID on   Facebook   iTunes

 

Artists with the Most Facebook Likes and Twitter Follows, August 2012

It’s been since March that we ranked artists according to their Facebook “likes” and Twitter follows.  Because of Carly Rae Jepsen’s surge forward and LIGHTS’ recent announcement of passing the 1 million mark on Facebook, we thought we’d provide an updated list.  The numbers below were taken from between 5 and 6 pm Pacific Daylight Savings Time on 8 August 2012.

Note that not all recording artists have an official Twitter account and I imagine that Twitter (and Facebook) are more popular with younger fans. Also, some recording artists who have not been active for a while may not have picked up as many of their fans on the net. Obviously, artists with an international following will have higher numbers than those who are popular mainly within Canada. So be careful how you interpret all this data. It simply gives a general idea of some of the more popular artists currently.

Rank	Artist	Twitter	Facebook	TOTAL
1	Justin Bieber	26,298,638	45,888,702	72,187,340
2	Avril Lavigne	6,071,954	35,146,976	41,218,930
3	Drake	8,572,411	26,175,419	34,747,830
4	Nickelback	299,345	14,246,531	14,545,876
5	Deadmau5	1,329,920	6,542,178	7,872,098
6	Simple Plan	346,523	6,590,944	6,937,467
7	Michael Buble	1,057,034	5,432,317	6,489,351
8	Nelly Furtado	2,788,465	2,724,211	5,512,676
9	Carly Rae Jepsen	2,092,845	1,800,287	3,893,132
10	Sum 41	195,996	3,247,266	3,443,262
11	Alanis Morissette	231,090	1,741,464	1,972,554
12	Bryan Adams	210,057	1,749,475	1,959,532
13	Arcade Fire	309,646	1,494,843	1,804,489
14	Rush	69,565	1,604,428	1,673,993
15	Shania Twain	165,491	1,353,250	1,518,741
16	LIGHTS	417,957	1,003,427	1,421,384
17	Leonard Cohen	19,708	1,271,693	1,291,401
18	Billy Talent	43,306	1,190,060	1,233,366
19	Sarah McLachlan	66,923	943,510	1,010,433
20	Coeur de Pirate	55,516	910,117	965,633
21	Hedley	148,567	750,390	898,957
22	Metric	155,486	738,627	894,113
23	Tegan & Sara	185,086	700,009	885,095
24	K’naan	147,524	726,686	874,210
25	City and Colour	138,510	702,561	841,071
26	Feist	54,584	710,283	764,867
27	Marianas Trench	104,965	590,174	695,139
28	Melanie Fiona	401,407	269,408	670,815
29	Karl Wolf	103,643	420,768	524,411
30	Down with Webster	57,554	462,034	519,588
31	Diana Krall	35,996	412,175	448,171
32	Stereos	51,730	380,422	432,152
33	Zameer	105,671	182,749	288,420
34	Our Lady Peace	14,392	237,035	251,427
35	Tragically Hip	16,423	228,267	244,690
36	Faber Drive	6,044	225,358	231,402
37	Stars	12,802	197,281	210,083
38	Garou	33,396	158,007	191,403
39	Raghav	14,237	160,681	174,918
40	Fefe Dobson	44,483	100,350	144,833
41	Mia Martina	65,495	71,039	136,534
42	Les Cowboys Fringants	9,632	109,164	118,796