Avril Lavigne is a multiple Juno winning, diamond recording artist, and one of Canada’s finest contributions to worldwide rock. She has sold nearly 35 million records. Two of her songs made the Billboard Top 100 of the entire decade (2000-2009). She launched her career as a teenager, writes her own songs, plays instruments, all of her performances are live, and she is an exceptional vocalist to boot. Anticipation is running high for her fifth studio album, scheduled for release in the fall. Lead single, “Here’s to Never Growing Up” debuted at #1 on the iTunes charts of 17 countries and at #3 at home here in Canada. The music video was launched today and shows a high school party. We love to see Avril skateboarding down the school halls in her classic tank top & tie combo. Check it out:
There’s an old saying that a prophet has no honour in his own country. Not to compare a celebrity with a prophet, but the principle often holds true. Michael Bublé’s latest single, “It’s a Beautiful Day” debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at #26. This sounds good given that it spent 1 week on the U.S. Billboard chart at #94. After being released in the United Kingdom, however, the single debuted on their official singles chart today at #10. It is the first British Top 10 song by a Canadian artist so far in 2013. Bublé who grew up in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby is scheduled to appear on the #1 chat show in Britain, The Graham Norton Show, this coming Friday.
New Brunswick’s Mia Martina gained tremendous mileage from her album Devotion including a pair of gold singles and JUNO nominations. She and her team have delivered some breathtaking music videos. Moreover, she is one Canadian, nay international, artist who can sing well in both official languages; she sounds exquisite in English and fabulous in French. Mia has shifted into 5th gear working like the blazes on her next album and has already unleashed her hot new single “HeartBreaker” which is currently burning up the Canadian Hot 100. The newly released stylish music video was shot in classy black and white. EDM never sounded so good. The world has only two known cures for a broken heart: 1. Time. 2. Mia Martina’s music. Check out the fantastic song below.
Final State is a male quartet of former high school friends from the snowiest and arguably most beautiful city in Canada—Québec City. Single “All I Want” from their first (eponymous) album won a host of awards in 2011-12. They are set to release their second album and have launched lead single “Make Up Your Mind” which has scored for the band their first appearance on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. There is an English-only version of the song as well as a choice bilingual version which features splendid female vocalist Laurence Pagé. We have embedded the MV of the latter below.
Sarah Blackwood, Joel Cassady, Gianni Luminati, Ryan Marshall, and Mike Taylor are Burlington, Ontario’s Walk Off the Earth, and they are all multi-instrumentalists playing everything from kazoo, banjo, xylophone, glockenspiel, harmonica, trumpet, and ukulele to the standard guitar, piano, and drums. They have been releasing material since 2007 and drew worldwide attention with their clever cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and its music video with the five of them playing it on a lone guitar. Their version peaked at #13 on the Canadian Hot 100, was certified platinum, and became an international hit single. This year, 2013, the band is up for two JUNO Awards.
Walk Off the Earth released an EP at the end of 2012 called R.E.V.O., and single “Red Hands” last week entered the Top 20 of the Hot 100. We are pleased to share the music video below. They will be releasing a full-length album soon.
Kim Davis is a JUNO-nominated powerhouse singer and inspired songwriter who grew up in Toronto (Scarborough) and Cape Town, South Africa. She has toured with John Legend and opened for Melanie Fiona, Alicia Keys, and Neyo. “Show Me the Way” received a JUNO nomination in 2010 for Reggae Recording of the Year. She is well-rounded in her approach to music proving that she can handle various genres with ease, from mainstream dance pop, to soulful R&B, and to rich reggae. Kim became the number one unsigned artist on MySpace Canada and the only female artist on the site with over one million music plays. At the end of 2012, she released her new 17-track album There’s Only One and last week launched the gorgeously shot music video for her new single, the sunny, upbeat “One Day”, a catchy dance pop tune that is guaranteed to lift your spirits up and get your feet shuffling. Kim will be performing during Canadian Music Week and will be embarking on a North American tour later this year.
Carly Rae Jepsen has released the latest single off her gold-certified 2nd LP Kiss. Her debut album, Tug of War spawned two hit singles: the title track which peaked at #36 on the Canadian Hot 100 and “Bucket” which made it to #32. Both singles were certified gold in Canada. After this, she released her Curiosity EP. It’s title track reached #18 on the Hot 100, was certified gold, and was the 55th biggest song of the year 2012. “Call Me Maybe”, at 7x platinum, is the best-selling Canadian single in history domestically. It peaked at #1 and finished 2012 as the 2nd biggest song. Her collaboration with Owl City, “Good Time” was also a #1 single and appeared at #30 on the 2012 year-end chart. After releasing the Kiss album, single “This Kiss” reached a chart peak of #23, and her collaboration with Justin Bieber, “Beautiful”, climbed to #37. Last week, her latest single “Tonight I’m Getting Over You” entered the Hot 100 becoming her 8th single to achieve such a distinction. It is already a Top 20 single in Belgium.
Carly has released the music video for the new song which we have embedded below. It has, in two weeks, garnered nearly 8 million YouTube views. Carly Rae Jepsen has been nominated for 5 JUNO awards this year.
Eleven Past One are a male quintet from Bowmanville, ON (just east of Oshawa) and New Brunswick. They assembled in 2007, toured the U.S. and released album The Ultimate Catch in 2010. They have been compared to The Wanted and One Direction. Their latest single “The World Is Ours” broke into the Top 40 on the Canadian Hot 100 last week. The single was produced by JUNO award winner Brian Howes who has worked with Daughtry, Hedley, Nickelback, and Simple Plan. The summer-themed music video of the song was spearheaded by Ben Knechtel, the man behind Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” MV. The five lads are Daniel Richter (lead vocals), Stephen Richter (guitar), Kyle Bykiv (guitar), Dan Beattie (bass), and Steve Patenaude (drums). We wish them all the best.
Vita Chambers is a Canadian recording artist born in Vancouver and spent part of her youth growing up in Barbados. By posting performances of some songs she had written on YouTube, her powerful voice and composition skills attracted the attention of New York’s SRP Records production company who signed her and she was onboard with Universal Motown in 2009 (later Universal Republic). Her first single “Young Money” appeared in 2010 followed by 5-track EP, The Get Go. Vita toured with Justin Bieber the same year. In mid-December 2012, Chambers released the song “Fix You” while working on her debut album. The MV hit YouTube on Jan 10, 2013 and has garnered over 450,000 views to date. “Fix You” has been nominated for Dance Recording of the Year at the JUNOs and entered the Hot 100 on February 27. This song is hot.
Ottawa’s Kristina Maria is doing very well. Her dubut album Tell the World has thus far spawned four Top 40 hits, three of which have gone GOLD. It’s no wonder then that the album has been nominated for a JUNO award. A music video for Kristina’s lastest single “Karma” was released recently and reveals some funky goings on at the office when karma is let loose. It’s a blast. Check it out.
Tonight is Chinese New Year’s Eve. Given that Chinese were born on Canadian soil prior to confederation and are the third largest group in the country after those of British and French ancestry, the Canadian Music Blog would like to wish all Canadians a very happy Chinese New Year. Because the festival occurs based on the lunar calendar, the date fluctuates each year at some point in January or February. This year, 2013, it is held February 10, and we are entering the year of the snake characterized by the qualities of calm and endurance. We are happy to present the brief bio below and special music video to mark the occasion.
Linda Chung is a Canadian singer and actress currently based in Hong Kong. She was born in Maple Ridge, BC, attended Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver, and studied education at The University of British Columbia. In 2002, Linda won a beauty contest hosted by Crystal Mall in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. The following year, she won the title of Miss Chinese Vancouver which led to her participation in the Miss Chinese International Pageant in 2004. She won. She was subsequently signed by Hong Kong television network TVB and began acting in a series called Virtues of Harmony followed by a number of others. As she was a solid singer, she was asked to sing songs for a number of television series which led to a record deal in Hong Kong. Her first album appeared in 2008 and was certified gold.
Linda Chung’s beautiful song “Vaccination”, released last year, is sung in the Cantonese language and was named by Hong Kong’s Jade Solid Gold Music Awards as one of the 10 biggest songs of 2012. We have embedded the music video below.
Karim Ouellet was born in Dakar, Senegal (for those of us geographically challenged, that’s in Africa, eh). He spent his youth in Canada, Rwanda, and Tunisia and has now settled in Québec. He was a finalist at the Granby Festival of Song in 2009 and Montréal’s Francouvertes in 2011. The same year he won a Pop Album of the Year award for Plume. His new album is called Fox. Karim is considered one of the most talented of our emerging Francophone artists alongside Lisa LeBlanc. A listen of his song “L’amour” proves that the man is absolutely amazing. The song is currently a big hit on mainstream radio in French Canada.
Coquitlam, BC’s 19 year-old Tyler Shaw, currently studying sociology at the University of PEI, was one of 1,300 people to submit an entry to MuchMusic’s Covers Contest in 2012. He entered the contest with a cover of Hedley’s “Invincible” which brought him all the way to the Top 15. Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” rolled him into the Top 10 and Britney Spears’ “I Wanna Go” into the final three. Needless to say, Tyler Shaw won the grand prize which was a deal with Sony Music to release a digital single complete with a music video. The original song is called “Kiss Goodnight” which made its debut on the Canadian Hot 100 this week. He promoted it while on tour with We Day. We have embedded the beautiful music video for the song below.
Incredible as it sounds, platinum recording artist, Nova Scotian rapper Classified will soon be releasing his 15th album! In his new tune, “Inner Ninja”, he recruited New Brunswick’s reggae master David Myles for some sweet singing. Myles’ Into the Sun was one of our favourite albums of 2011. “Inner Ninja” is now just outside the Top 40 on the Canadian Hot 100 and a video has been released featuring what looks like a Maritime school of martial arts for minors. We’re diggin’ this tune and hope you are as well.
Recognized as one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters — his music has been covered by Michael Buble, and he is admired by Sir Paul McCartney — JUNO award winning Ron Sexsmith, born and raised in the beautiful city of St. Catharines, is releasing a brand new album February 5th entitled Forever Endeavour. This is a followup to his fabulous 2011 release with producer Bob Rock. The first single from the new album is already out, “Nowhere to Go”. We have embedded a special acoustic performance below (recorded live at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse in Toronto) in which Ron talks about how the concept for the song emerged. You can also view the lyric video of the final product HERE. There are many people around the world who would agree with the statement, “Ron Sexsmith is the man”. You can download the new single from iTunes and/or preorder the album HERE.
There’s an old saying that a prophet has no honour in his own country. Not to compare a celebrity with a prophet, but the principle often holds true. Michael Bublé’s latest single, “It’s a Beautiful Day” debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at #26. This sounds good given that it spent 1 week on the U.S. Billboard chart at #94. After being released in the United Kingdom, however, the single debuted on their official singles chart today at #10. It is the first British Top 10 song by a Canadian artist so far in 2013. Bublé who grew up in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby is scheduled to appear on the #1 chat show in Britain, The Graham Norton Show, this coming Friday.
New Brunswick’s Mia Martina gained tremendous mileage from her album Devotion including a pair of gold singles and JUNO nominations. She and her team have delivered some breathtaking music videos. Moreover, she is one Canadian, nay international, artist who can sing well in both official languages; she sounds exquisite in English and fabulous in French. Mia has shifted into 5th gear working like the blazes on her next album and has already unleashed her hot new single “HeartBreaker” which is currently burning up the Canadian Hot 100. The newly released stylish music video was shot in classy black and white. EDM never sounded so good. The world has only two known cures for a broken heart: 1. Time. 2. Mia Martina’s music. Check out the fantastic song below.
Final State is a male quartet of former high school friends from the snowiest and arguably most beautiful city in Canada—Québec City. Single “All I Want” from their first (eponymous) album won a host of awards in 2011-12. They are set to release their second album and have launched lead single “Make Up Your Mind” which has scored for the band their first appearance on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. There is an English-only version of the song as well as a choice bilingual version which features splendid female vocalist Laurence Pagé. We have embedded the MV of the latter below.
Sarah Blackwood, Joel Cassady, Gianni Luminati, Ryan Marshall, and Mike Taylor are Burlington, Ontario’s Walk Off the Earth, and they are all multi-instrumentalists playing everything from kazoo, banjo, xylophone, glockenspiel, harmonica, trumpet, and ukulele to the standard guitar, piano, and drums. They have been releasing material since 2007 and drew worldwide attention with their clever cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and its music video with the five of them playing it on a lone guitar. Their version peaked at #13 on the Canadian Hot 100, was certified platinum, and became an international hit single. This year, 2013, the band is up for two JUNO Awards.
Kim Davis is a JUNO-nominated powerhouse singer and inspired songwriter who grew up in Toronto (Scarborough) and Cape Town, South Africa. She has toured with John Legend and opened for Melanie Fiona, Alicia Keys, and Neyo. “Show Me the Way” received a JUNO nomination in 2010 for Reggae Recording of the Year. She is well-rounded in her approach to music proving that she can handle various genres with ease, from mainstream dance pop, to soulful R&B, and to rich reggae. Kim became the number one unsigned artist on MySpace Canada and the only female artist on the site with over one million music plays. At the end of 2012, she released her new 17-track album There’s Only One and last week launched the gorgeously shot music video for her new single, the sunny, upbeat “One Day”, a catchy dance pop tune that is guaranteed to lift your spirits up and get your feet shuffling. Kim will be performing during Canadian Music Week and will be embarking on a North American tour later this year.
Carly Rae Jepsen has released the latest single off her gold-certified 2nd LP Kiss. Her debut album, Tug of War spawned two hit singles: the title track which peaked at #36 on the Canadian Hot 100 and “Bucket” which made it to #32. Both singles were certified gold in Canada. After this, she released her Curiosity EP. It’s title track reached #18 on the Hot 100, was certified gold, and was the 55th biggest song of the year 2012. “Call Me Maybe”, at 7x platinum, is the best-selling Canadian single in history domestically. It peaked at #1 and finished 2012 as the 2nd biggest song. Her collaboration with Owl City, “Good Time” was also a #1 single and appeared at #30 on the 2012 year-end chart. After releasing the Kiss album, single “This Kiss” reached a chart peak of #23, and her collaboration with Justin Bieber, “Beautiful”, climbed to #37. Last week, her latest single “Tonight I’m Getting Over You” entered the Hot 100 becoming her 8th single to achieve such a distinction. It is already a Top 20 single in Belgium.
Vita Chambers is a Canadian recording artist born in Vancouver and spent part of her youth growing up in Barbados. By posting performances of some songs she had written on YouTube, her powerful voice and composition skills attracted the attention of New York’s SRP Records production company who signed her and she was onboard with Universal Motown in 2009 (later Universal Republic). Her first single “Young Money” appeared in 2010 followed by 5-track EP, The Get Go. Vita toured with Justin Bieber the same year. In mid-December 2012, Chambers released the song “Fix You” while working on her debut album. The MV hit YouTube on Jan 10, 2013 and has garnered over 450,000 views to date. “Fix You” has been nominated for Dance Recording of the Year at the JUNOs and entered the Hot 100 on February 27. This song is hot.
Tonight is Chinese New Year’s Eve. Given that Chinese were born on Canadian soil prior to confederation and are the third largest group in the country after those of British and French ancestry, the Canadian Music Blog would like to wish all Canadians a very happy Chinese New Year. Because the festival occurs based on the lunar calendar, the date fluctuates each year at some point in January or February. This year, 2013, it is held February 10, and we are entering the year of the snake characterized by the qualities of calm and endurance. We are happy to present the brief bio below and special music video to mark the occasion.
Karim Ouellet was born in Dakar, Senegal (for those of us geographically challenged, that’s in Africa, eh). He spent his youth in Canada, Rwanda, and Tunisia and has now settled in Québec. He was a finalist at the Granby Festival of Song in 2009 and Montréal’s Francouvertes in 2011. The same year he won a Pop Album of the Year award for Plume. His new album is called Fox. Karim is considered one of the most talented of our emerging Francophone artists alongside Lisa LeBlanc. A listen of his song “L’amour” proves that the man is absolutely amazing. The song is currently a big hit on mainstream radio in French Canada.
