Traditional music and dance
According to Statistics Canada's latest census of 2021, 5% of the Canadian population is of Aboriginal origin - that is, First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Music and dance play an essential role in the transmission of Aboriginal culture and identity. Although practices and customs vary enormously from one people to another, there is a common thread running through them all. In general, aboriginal vocal music is syllabic, can be performed both solo and in chorus, and often takes the form of call-and-response. The music, though very much centered around the voice, is accompanied by drums and flutes or whistles.
Supported by a government more attentive to the country's minorities, First Peoples have gradually gained in visibility over the past decade, with the immediate consequence in the cultural field of propelling more Aboriginal artists to the forefront of the Canadian music scene, notably via major festivals such as Innu Nikamu or Présence Autochtone, both of which take place in Quebec during the summer season.
In 2021, 2.3% of the Quebec population was of Aboriginal origin, grouped into 11 distinct nations: Abenaki, Algonquin, Atikamekw, Cree, Huron-Wendat, Innu, Inuit, Maliseet, Micmac, Mohawk and Naskapi. Their songs are characterized by "antiphony" (call and response), complex rhythms and the use of flutes and whistles as solo instruments - in addition to a wide variety of drums.
Among Quebec native artists to watch, the most traditional are to be found in the Black Bear group of singers and drummers. Simply amazing. A big name on the Canadian scene comes from Quebec's far north (Nunavik): Élisapie Isaac. Singing in French, English and Inuktitut - her mother tongue - about the splendors and realities of today's Inuit people, her music caresses both the folk and traditions of her native land. Also well established, the committed rapper Samian is an emblem of the aboriginal scene. A native of the Abitibiwinni First Nation, he raps in both French and Algonquin. On the North Shore, Florent Vollant and Shauit, both from the Maliotenam reserve, have become recognized names on the Canadian music scene in very different genres. Each in their own way, they orbit their music around a traditional core.
Ontario is home to 23% of the country's Aboriginal peoples, the highest concentration in Canada. Mainly Algonquin, Cree, Delaware, Haudenosaunee, Odawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi live here. The songs of the region share common structures of short iterative phrases, numerous cries, pentatonic scales and simple rhythms.
In Western Canada, the Tsimshian, Salish, Haida, Kutenai, Athabaskan and Blackfoot peoples predominate. In the Canadian Prairies, the land of the Blackfoot, for example, singing is nasal, recognizable by its frequent high notes, and large, double-skinned drums are often used, whereas in British Columbia, Tsimshian territory, monophonies are legion and songs are characterized by complex, declamatory rhythms.
A handful of local Aboriginal artists have made their way to national prominence, including Jerry Alfred from the Selkirk Aboriginal community in the Yukon, Alberta's French-speaking Crystal Plamondon, who blends traditional Cajun sounds with country, folk and pop songs (she also sings in Cree), and the world-famous Buffy Sainte-Marie, an Aboriginal folk singer with a worldwide reputation. It's worth noting, however, that her Aboriginal roots have recently been called into question...
Otherwise, the country offers many opportunities to discover traditional music and its artists, notably at the famous powwows that take place from coast to coast during the summer months. From music and dance to art and gastronomy, these great celebrations are well worth the detour.
In Nunavut, Inuit land, you can hear the famous throat singing known as katajjaq. This bewitching diphonic singing - surprising to the untrained ear - is the prerogative of women here, and was originally practiced as a game. Tanya Tagaq is the artist who is most famous for bringing this tradition to modern aesthetics. This astonishing artist has enjoyed worldwide success and has twice been awarded a Juno and once a Polaris Prize.
Also, in 2014, the fine American label Light in the Attic released the compilation Native North America, bringing together many rare songs and forgotten musicians from First Nations and Inuit. An invaluable document for obtaining a broad overview of these artists and the way they have embraced modern music.
Otherwise, National Aboriginal Peoples' Day, celebrated every year on June 21, is a not-to-be-missed event. As its name suggests, this special day celebrates the unique heritage, cultural diversity and remarkable contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples to Canada, and includes its fair share of demonstrations of traditional practices.
Classical music
Given Canada's relatively young national history, we can hardly speak of a "classical music tradition". Canada's first operas date back to the late 18th century, with composer, poet and playwright Joseph Quesnel (1746-1809) and his work Colas et Colinette (1790), sometimes considered North America's first opera.
One of the pioneers of Canadian music was composer and pianist Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943). He remains one of the first African-American composers in history, and is remembered for his unique style, a blend of influences from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Nadia Boulanger - with whom he studied in Paris - and Dvořák, as well as spiritual music. Long forgotten, he has gradually been rediscovered and performed in recent years.
Other renowned composers came long after, in the contemporary register between the 1950s and 1970s, with names like Pierre Mercure, Serge Garant, Gilles Tremblay and the dark genius Claude Vivier. Jacques Hétu, meanwhile, is the most widely performed Canadian composer abroad, a lyric poet at once neoclassical and profoundly modern. Also linked to the minimalist and musique concrète movements is R. Murray Schafer, the (almost) famous inventor of the concepts of soundscape and sound ecology, which place the acoustic environment at the heart of composition.
Of all Canadian musicians, the most famous - and most impressive - is of course the fabulous pianist Glenn Gould. A precocious talent, he joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) at the age of 14, then became famous for his otherworldly interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations (two recordings in 1955 and 1981). A virtuoso bordering on genius, Glenn Gould suddenly retired from the stage (and from public life) in 1964 to devote himself to recording studios. From then on, he concentrated on composing and creating radio and television programs. His unique style, with its intense, elastic tempi, divided the musical community as much as it fascinated the public. A true emblem of his city, Gould's soul is everywhere in Toronto, notably at 250 Front Street West, in front of the CBC Radio-Canada offices, where you can sit beside his bronze statue.
Canada also boasts a number of other less famous but remarkable pianists, such as Jan Lisiecki, a precocious prodigy who was already playing with some of the world's most prestigious symphony ensembles; Louis Lortie, a great interpreter of Chopin with a plethora of discography and a piquant style; Alain Lefèvre, star of his instrument; and Marc-André Hamelin, a pianist often described as a virtuoso, also known for his immense repertoire and his passion for composers considered unplayable.
In addition to its pianists, the country also boasts a number of lyrical talents who have helped it shine beyond its borders. Starting in the early 20th century, with contralto Portia White (1911-1968), the first Afro-Canadian singer to achieve international renown.Later came George London (1920-1985), bass-baritone and the first non-Russian to play Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi, Louis Quilico (1925-2000), baritone nicknamed "Monsieur Rigoletto" who performed 25 years in a row at the New York Met, his contemporary Jon Vickers, a powerful tenor who appeared in the same place for 27 years in almost 300 performances, and finally bass Joseph Rouleau, who performed on the greatest stages alongside the best.
On the conducting front, the country shines in the hands of iconic and iconoclastic Quebecer Walter Boudreau, head of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Peter Oundjian, once head of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and last but not least, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the immense conductor who shook up and refreshed the Rotterdam Philharmonic and still leads the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the pillars of the American "Big Five". But that's not all. He is also the life director of the Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal, renowned for its excellent recordings and most of its time at the Maison symphonique de la Place des Arts.
This same hall is also home to Canada's great philharmonic entity: the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Conducted by the great Rafael Payare since 2021, who succeeds Kent Nagano, the OSM is considered the most prestigious symphony orchestra in Canada and one of the best in North America. In the same city, let's not forget to mention I Musici, the Montreal chamber orchestra, founded in 1983 by cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, and made up of fifteen musicians performing a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary.
Québec City also boasts a world-renowned chamber ensemble: Les Violons du Roy: Les Violons du Roy. Specializing in the classical Baroque repertoire, the orchestra also occasionally takes a detour into the 19th and 20th centuries. To see them, you have to go to the Palais Montcalm, a beautiful building in the heart of Old Quebec. It's always a good idea to browse through its varied program.
Ontario is also home to opera lovers. There's the iconic Massey Hall, built in 1894 (the oldest in the country), which hosts top-quality musical performances, as well as more modern establishments like the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, with its magnificent 2,000-seat auditorium and home to the Canadian Opera Company, one of North America's most renowned opera ensembles. Ontario also boasts some great ensembles. One of the best examples is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), formerly led by such luminaries as Japan's Seiji Ozawa and Finland's Jukka-Pekka Saraste, which performs at Roy Thomson Hall.
The French song
With one in five Canadians having French as their mother tongue, French-language song is naturally a big national market. And it's a market driven not only by a locally imposed quota of 65% French-language songs on French-language radio stations, but also by the possibility of exporting artists to the entire French-speaking world (a pool of some 300 million potential listeners, after all). Who here hasn't heard of Céline Dion?
But long before Céline, the woman who was considered French Canada's first singer-songwriter was Mary Travers. Nicknamed "La Bolduc", this illustrious Gaspesian recounted like no other the reality of interwar Quebec and the daily lives of the little people. It was she who opened the door to chansonniers such as Robert Charlebois, Félix Leclerc and Gilles Vigneault - monuments to the French equivalent of Brassens - and the more counter-cultural Plume Latraverse and Richard Desjardins.
In a different but not so distant register, a few decades later, a whole generation of international stars, more focused on variety, such as Céline Dion (of course) but also Garou, Roch Voisine, Isabelle Boulay and Lynda Lemay, invaded the world's airwaves with one hit after another. Today, it's the likes of Cœur de Pirate and Pierre Lapointe who are taking the revival of Quebec's French-language chanson beyond their borders, with more intimate, sensitive lyrics.
Anyone wanting to hear chansonniers live on stage in Quebec will have to go to a "boîte à chansons". Typically Québécois, these pocket-sized venues are the preferred stages for local singers. This is where you'll hear newcomers like Félix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault and Robert Charlebois take their first steps. As most of them have closed down over the years, our best bet is La P'tite Grenouille (several branches in Quebec).
Popular music
At the end of the Great Depression, Canadian music experienced a momentum similar to that of its American neighbor, driven in particular by the success of the "Maharaja of the keyboard", Montreal pianist and jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson (1925-2007).
But it was really after the Second World War that Canada's first musical idol emerged in the shape of Paul Anka. His first song, Diana, brought him instant fame. This marked the beginning of a period in which Canada produced some of the most important and influential artists of their century, first Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), a deep-voiced folk singer-songwriter from Montreal, and then Neil Young. This Toronto-born artist is the embodiment of folk and its evolution throughout his career, rich in projects and twists and turns. Whether as part of a group (such as the famous Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) or through his solo projects (the album Harvest is widely regarded as one of the most important in music history), Neil Young is seen by his fans - but not only - as one of the finest musicians of recent decades. Rounding out this trio is Alberta artist Joni Mitchell, who also ranks among the folk legends.
After them, it was soft-hearted rockers like Bryan Adams (and his hit Everything I Do on the soundtrack of the film Robin Hood), edgier rockers like Alanis Morissette and country rockers like Shania Twain who took center stage at the end of the 20th century. Not to mention Céline Dion, of course.
More recently, Canada has been exported internationally with albums by Michael Bublé, the modern crooner famous for his mawkish Christmas hits, Nelly Furtado, the great pop star of the 2000s and muse of producer Timbaland, and Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen.
Aside from these mainstream stars, let's not forget to mention a Western Canadian passion: country music. Originating in the Appalachian region of the USA, country music first appeared in Canada in the late 1920s, popularized by musicians such as fiddlers Don Messer and George Wade. Although the genre has always appealed to Westerners - it's no doubt well suited to the region's wide-open spaces - it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 1990s, thanks to the success of Canadian artists such as Garth Brooks (a huge star in his own right), Terri Clark and, more recently, K. D. Lang, an uncompromising Albertan artist who has publicly declared her homosexuality, a rare occurrence in a rather resistant world.
Current music
Made more or less from the same wood as its American twin, the Canadian independent music scene shines with its liveliness and richness. Here, we find sacred monsters such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Rufus Wainwright and Arcade Fire; electro champions like Caribou, A-Trak, Kaytranada, Jessy Lanza and Chromeo; eccentric icons like Grimes, the swaggering Mac DeMarco and the superb pianist Chilly Gonzales; and experimentalists like Dirty Beaches, Sarah Davachi and Kara-Lis Coverdale. Not forgetting a host of other names beloved by indie fans, such as Alvvays, with their sentimental rock; cult Canadian band The Tragically Hip; Men I Trust, with their relaxing electro-pop; Daniel Bejar, the one-man band behind Destroyer; Timber Timbre, with their dark folk-rock; singer Feist, known for her playful pop; Metric, the descendants of the Pixies; and Broken Social Scene, a rock supergroup featuring Leslie Feist and Emily Haines from Metric, among others.
On the francophone side, it's no more shy, with nuggets such as Marie Davidson and her sensual, highly mechanical new wave, Klo Pelgag and his colorful folk, Hubert Lenoir's prodigious glam rock, the upset indie pop of Safia Nolin (known to some for her many duets with Pomme - whose wife, incidentally, she is) and the travel pop of Karim Ouellet.
It's a little-known fact that one of Canada's specialties is rap. In fact, we say "Canadian", but almost all the major rappers come from one and the same city: Toronto. Since the 2000s, it has become one of the capitals of the genre, a status it owes to the rise of the iconic Drake. A protégé of the great Lil Wayne in his early days, Drake has gone on to become one of the world's leading rap figures in the space of two decades, lighting up the entire hometown scene with his success. Today, Toronto is, like New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta, one of the great cities of American rap, with stars like The Weeknd or PARTYNEXTDOOR and up-and-coming stars like Dvsn, Jazz Cartier or NAV and K-os. More recently, a name to remember is Toronto-born Mustafa The Poet: his voice and moving lyrics are a perfect match for his blend of rap and folk.
Given the country's dynamism, you'd guess there's no shortage of places to see a concert. In Montreal, one of the most popular venues for current music fans is MTELUS. Located in the heart of the city, this legendary venue, long known as Métropolis, can accommodate 2,300 people. All the big names in pop have played here, from David Bowie to Rita Mitsouko to Björk. On the festival front, music lovers flock in unison to Pop Montréal, the rendezvous of the international independent scene, or, in winter, toIgloofest, a breathtaking electronic music festival with its feet in the snow.
In Quebec City, the nerve center of the city's creative renaissance is Pantoum. Studio, concert hall, record label... just like the Festival d'été de Québec, which each year offers an eleven-day showcase for both big names - Metallica, The Rolling Stones or IAM - and young local talent. A great showcase for Quebec City's creative talent.
In Toronto, there's a great festival, North By Northeast, Canada's answer to Texas' South By Southwest, renowned for its eclectic program, while in Calgary, the place to be is the Broken City Social Club. Widely popular with the city's young hipsters, this address is both a bar-restaurant and a concert hall programming rock, punk, country and jazz.
Theater and humor
France can't ignore it: Quebec is a theatre-loving country. Our hexagonal stages have staged, adapted, performed and published such leading playwrights as Wajdi Mouawad, Michel Tremblay, Larry Tremblay, Évelyne de la Chenelière, Marie Laberge and Carole Fréchette. Unsurprisingly, there's no shortage of places to approach Quebec playwrights. In Montreal, one of the most important stages is the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, with its beautiful Italianate-style auditorium and superb productions of major works from the national and international repertoires, from Molière to Koltès, via Shakespeare and Michel Tremblay. Another pillar of the city, the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, has seen the crème de la crème of local playwrights declaim their finest prose on its stages over more than 75 years: Antonine Maillet, Michel Tremblay, Gratien Gélinas and Marie-Claire Blais to name but a few. To be sure of finding a new Quebec creation, head for the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui, which, since 1968, has been promoting and disseminating local and Canadian French-language dramaturgy through creations and revivals of the repertory. The city also hosts a particularly interesting event every spring, the FringeMTL festival, an international festival of free expression combining theater, dance and music (also organized in other Canadian cities). French-language theater is not confined to Quebec, with French-speaking communities across the country. These include Winnipeg's Théâtre Cercle Molière and Toronto's Théâtre français.
Given the number of Canadian comedians who have made a career in France, it's easy to see the importance of humor in Quebec. Quebecers take humor very seriously, so much so that a National School of Humor was founded in Montreal in 1988. The school has since graduated over 700 writers and comedians, including Frenchmen (such as Roman Frayssinet) and a host of contemporary names in Quebec humor such as Jean-Marc Parent, Lise Dion, Laurent Paquin, Jean-Michel Anctil, Martin Matte, Guillaume Wagner, François Bellefeuille and Philippe Laprise. Unsurprisingly, Montreal, the birthplace of the world's biggest comedy event, the famous Just for Laughs festival, is brimming with comedy venues. The most prominent in town? Without a doubt, the Bordel Comédie Club, a former brothel (hence the name) converted into an American-style stage, where every evening five artists perform to a frenzied rhythm.
Finally, let's round off this tour of Canadian stages with the Quebec art of the circus, and in particular Cirque du Soleil. Seeking to breathe a breath of modernity into the discipline without breaking with tradition, this circus of astonishing creativity reconciles with the genre those who thought they had grown tired of it. Disturbingly graceful, his shows travel all over the world, but never fail to come back to Quebec for a while. Other lesser-known but equally interesting Quebec companies, such as Cirque Eloize and Les 7 Doigts de la Main, also stand out for their originality.
