 | Saturday, April 12, 2025 | |  | Saturday, April 12, 2025 | | Avril. Justin. Drake. Tate. Over the last quarter century, these Canadian artists and many more have made their mark in music.
From the rise of pop-punk and indie-rock in the early 2000s, to the global hip-hop takeover in the 2010s, to the chart-topping pop dominance that came after, Canadian musicians have not only influenced some of the most prominent genres in the world, but defined them entirely.
For each year starting in 2000, CBC Music has selected the artist who rose to the top. Assessed by relevance, breakthrough success, ability to capture the zeitgeist as well as the impact they've made on the music industry at large, these are the musicians who pushed the cultural needle forward, releasing great songs along the way. Canada has routinely punched above its weight with the talent coming out of this country — and these artists are proof.
Behold: The best Canadian musicians, from 2000 to the present. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | “I definitely suffered from Bieber fever, very strongly,” Alessia Cara recently told CBC Music, for our best Canadian musicians project. “I was too afraid to say that I was fangirling really hard over this boy that I didn’t know, so I would just pretend that I wasn’t really obsessed,” she added. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | We’re excited to announce that CBC and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) Foundation are once again teaming up to launch Reverie: The Indigenous Music Residency, where four Indigenous musicians will come together to write music and expand on their artistry. Applications are open now until May 7. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | After Rush’s dissolution in 2018, guitarist Alex Lifeson formed a new band called Envy of None. To celebrate the release of the band’s sophomore album, Stygian Wavz, Lifeson stopped by CBC Music to tell us about the five songs that have changed his life. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | “Character Witness isn't a music documentary so much as a companion piece to my record One Real Reveal and the accompanying tour where I shared memories, images and songs while seated in a red swivel chair,” Plaskett wrote about his new documentary. “While I'm happy to put the producer's feather in my hat, there was no director on this. I like to think that everyone involved helped direct it subconsciously — like hands on a Ouija board.” | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Abigail Lapell performs her evocative mix of folk, gospel, country and poetic meditations on love at TD Music Hall in Toronto in celebration of the release of her latest album, Anniversary, for CBC Music Live. Special guests including Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers and singer-songwriter Kaia Kater join her onstage. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | While the CBC Music Top 20 loves to celebrate Canadian songs and artists, we are an international chart, and this week we're adding three brand new songs from three very hot English and Irish artists. Dublin’s Fontaines D.C.'s new song, It's Amazing to Be Young, is a feel-good anthem that seems to be hitting at just the right time. Lucy Rose is a singer-songwriter from Surrey, England, whose Paul Weller-produced new song, Pale Blue Eyes (not a Velvet Underground cover), hits the perfect ethereal groove. And Sam Fender, whose sound has been likened to '80s Bruce Springsteen, thunders back onto the chart with his latest bombastic hit, Little Bit Closer.
Vote for your favourites now to climb up the chart. | | | | | | | Correction: in our last newsletter, on March 31, we mistakenly credited Anne Murray with a Michael Bublé quote. We have fixed it online, and we regret the error.
Thanks so much for joining us for this issue of Listen Up! If you loved it, feel free to let us know at listenup@cbc.ca — and use the same email if you have questions or suggestions. Please share it with your friends, family and even enemies via cbc.ca/listenup. | | | |
