24 March 2026 - Elisapie - Arnaq

By the way, Inuktitut was a great album, but it wasn't the first time Elisapie had sung in that language.

This song was the lead song and single from her 2018 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, a multilingual masterpiece, with songs in Inuktitut, English and French - years before Rosalía showed off being a polyglot. 

The album got Elisapie a Juno nomination and her first Polaris shortlist.  The song - the title translates to "Woman" in English and speaks to the strength of women - is absolutely masterpiece level work.

I debated which of the many excellent live performances of this song to share with you.

I chose this one, from CBC Music, which shows 1) it's a clearly guitar-driven song and 2) the song has a slow burn and slow build to an epic conclusion.

But also, I couldn't not share this performance from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES radio station KEXP - from 2024, when she was touring in support of Inuktitut.  This 2018 song was epic and iconic enough to make the cut for the short setlist. 

24 March 2026 - Elisapie - The Love You Gave

Just because she released an album called Inuktitut does not mean that she doesn't speak English.

Or write her own songs.

Indeed, this song is both original and in English.  Her 2012 album Travelling Love was completely in English.  Of course, as a Quebec artist who also happens to identify as First Nations, she's at least trilingual, and a lot of her earlier music was in English. 

Fun story - she received a 2012 Juno Award nomination timed with this album, in the Breakthrough Artist category...... but she had previously won a Juno in 2005, so the nomination was rescinded.  

This song, co-written by the artist, is one of my favorites from her early career.  It's just a sweet pop song. It is here for you to enjoy. 

23 March 2026 - Thierry Larose - Cantalou

Do I understand every cultural reference in every song I post? Nope.  Especially I don't understand some from Quebec. 

Do you know who does? Quebecois indie singer-songwriter Thierry Larose. 

And I feel like I am missing a cultural reference here. Maybe one of you can tell me what it is.

At any rate, this was the title song from Larose's debut album, cowritten by the artist and a large team, including Charles-Antoine Olivier (who also plays drums on this song) and Alexandre Martel (no joke, he's banging the congas and tambourine here), with whom he won the 2021 SOCAN Songwriting Prize - for a different song, but just to show you that he's got a solid team with strong chops surrounding him. 

I don't care that this song is in French.  I care that it's a great song that would sound in place on any indie radio station. 

This single was from 2021, but he certainly still performs it live, as in this performance from Montreal in 2025. That is NOT Alexandre Martel on tambourine....

I promise you I didn't plan this. I didn't know this performance existed before about five minutes ago. 

Thierry Larose and Lou-Adriane Cassidy will return.

22 March 2026 - Mustafa - Gaza is Calling

We talk a lot about the Polaris Music Prize on here.  Mostly because it does honour really great Canadian music.  Hell, I could do a Polaris month at this point.   

Until last year, it honored albums only.  Last year, they partnered with SOCAN and gave out a song award as well.   This was the winner, and given what was going on in the world last year that I hope as of the time this blog post is published (I'm literally writing it the day after the win) is resolved because it's awful, it makes an awful lot of sense.

This song was a big single from Mustafa (the Poet)'s album DUNYA, which was also shortlisted for last year's album prize.  It was good, and heartfelt, and a very pretty album, and this is a beautiful, emotional song. 

21 March 2026 - DAPHNI ft. CARIBOU - Waiting So Long

This is a single from DAPHNI, which is a project by Canadian electronic musician Dan Snaith.  On this single, he collaborated with CARIBOU, which is a project by Canadian electronic musician Dan Snaith.

Yep.  He collaborated with himself.

Which, well, is kind of fun.   

DAPHNI's new album Butterfly was released last month, and, well, it's a bright, happy electronic sound (unlike CARIBOU, which is darker). I enjoyed it, and I hope you do, too!

20 March 2026 - Debby Friday - Lipsync

Last year, Polaris Prize-winning artist Debby Friday released yet another great electronic album, The Starrr of The Queen of Life. 

Debby isn't necessarily a typical Canadian artist - she's signed to Seattle record label Sub Pop, she was born in Nigeria - but the Montreal-raised and Vancouver-based artist is certainly the embodiment of everything that is great about Canadian music and why I dedicate approximately 1/12 of the year and a solid 10-15% of the posts on this blog to Canadian music - because it's innovative and fun and exciting and unlike anything you hear anywhere else on earth.

Also, Canadian artists tend to put on a hell of a show no matter the genre, and you can see that Debby has the way-too-small early day crowd in the palm of her hand.... and brings ALL the energy to this very cool song. 

19 March 2026 - Beyries - Soldier

 Remember when I said that Beyries discovered music while she was being treated for breast cancer?

Furthermore, remember when I said she was someone who sang both in English and French?

This song is the first one she wrote and performed, while she was undergoing cancer treatment.  It also appears on her 2017 debut album Landing. 

The thing about this song is, it's one that requires the artist and a piano..... and it's much easier to see just how personal this song is to her in a live setting, especially an intimate one.