Shadrach Kabango, better known as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian rapper and broadcaster. He has released 7 full-length albums and 3 EP's since his debut in 2005. He won a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 2011 and 5 of his albums have been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, the most short-list nominations of any artist since the prize's creation in 2006. In 2013, CBC Music named Shad the second-greatest Canadian rapper of all time. Shad hosted Q on CBC Radio One from 2015 to 2016 and hosts the International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on HBO Canada and Netflix.
Karkwa is an indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, formed in 1998.
Lee Harvey Osmond, stylized as LeE HARVeY OsMOND, is a Canadian psychedelic folk project fronted by musician Tom Wilson.
Lisa LeBlanc, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and banjoist, known for her enthusiastic "trash folk" performances. She has been noted for her "distinct" blend of folk, rock, and disco with both English and French language lyrics combined with chiac and her Acadian accent. Her accolades include two Félix Awards and an East Coast Music Award. She has also been nominated for three Juno Awards, the SOCAN Songwriting Prize, and shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize twice.
Kobo Town is a Juno-winning Canadian Caribbean music group, led by Trinidadian Canadian singer and songwriter Drew Gonsalves. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the band blends calypso music with a diverse mix of Caribbean and other musical influences, including ska, reggae, dub, rapso, zouk and hip hop.
Thus Owls is a Swedish-Canadian experimental indie rock band based in Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife duo Simon and Erika Angell, who are backed up at times by guest musicians.
Julien Sagot is a Canadian musician. Formerly a percussionist for the indie rock band Karkwa from 1998 to 2012, since that band's breakup he has released four albums as a solo singer-songwriter.
Pierre Kwenders is the stage name of José Louis Modabi, a Congolese-Canadian musician. His 2014 album Le Dernier empereur bantou was a shortlisted nominee for the Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2015, and a longlisted nominee for the 2015 Polaris Music Prize. Kwenders, who sings and raps in English, French, Lingala and Tshiluba, is noted for blending both African music and western pop music influences, including hip hop and electronic music, into his style.
Milk & Bone are a Canadian electropop duo based in Montreal, Quebec, consisting of Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin. Their debut album Little Mourning, released in 2015 via Bonsound, was a longlisted nominee for the 2015 Polaris Music Prize. Although both of the band members are francophones, they write and record in English.
Power in the Blood is the fifteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released May 12, 2015, on True North Records.
The following is a list of notable events and releases that happened in 2017 in music in Canada.
The 2017 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 18, 2017.
Kacy & Clayton is a Canadian folk/roots duo originating from Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan. The duo consists of second cousins Clayton Linthicum on guitar and Kacy Anderson on vocals.
Jeremy Dutcher is a classically-trained Canadian Indigenous tenor, composer, musicologist, performer and activist, who previously lived in Toronto, Ontario and currently lives in Montréal, Québec. He became widely known for his first album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, which won the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the 2019 Juno Awards.
Hubert Lenoir is the stage name of Hubert Chiasson, a French Canadian, singer, musician and actor from Quebec City, Quebec. His debut solo album Darlène was a shortlisted finalist for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa is the debut album by Canadian composer and tenor Jeremy Dutcher, released in 2018. The album, featuring post-classical rearrangement of traditional First Nations music, was the winner of the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
The following musical events and releases happened in 2019 in Canada.
Inscape is the second album from Canadian composer and pianist Alexandra Stréliski. It consists of eleven pieces for solo piano. The album was nominated for Album of the Year and Instrumental Album of the Year at the 2020 Juno Awards, with Stréliski also being nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Inscape was also long-listed for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize and was the number one classical album on Apple Music at the end of 2018 in the United States, with two of the tracks have reached over 20 million streams on Spotify. It was named number 9 on Exclaim's Top 10 Experimental & Modern Composition Albums released in 2018. The album led to two Felix Awards for Stréliski: "Author or Composer of the Year" and "Revelation of the Year".
The 2020 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on October 19, 2020. The longlist was announced on June 15, 2020, with the shortlist following on July 15, 2020 and the winner announced on October 19, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional winner's gala did not take place this year, and instead a special cinematic tribute to the shortlist was streamed online by CBC Music and CBC Gem, following which the winner was announced.
Corridor is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of vocalist and bassist Dominic Berthiaume, guitarist Julian Perreault, guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert and drummer Julien Bakvis, with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux in live performances. The first francophone band ever signed to the influential indie label Sub Pop, they are most noted for their 2019 album Junior, which was a longlisted nominee for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize.
