Drake continues to rule streaming. After being topped Spotify’s most-streamed artist in Canada final yr, the streaming service has launched its World Impression Record for the primary half of 2026, revealing the 50 most-played songs by Canadian artists exterior of their house nation. To nobody’s shock, the Toronto rapper has 40 of the 50 spots, together with the highest 12.
Due to the rapper’s historic Iceman launch — which included a triple-album drop with Maid of Honour and Habibti — Drake instructions a whopping 80% of the record, led by his chart-topping hit, “Janice SFTU,” which the streaming platform already tapped as one in every of its song-of-the-summer contenders. It’s adopted by “Nationwide Treasures,” “Shabang,” “Whisper My Identify” and “Ran To Atlanta,” that includes Future and Molly Santana, to spherical out the highest 5. He wraps up the record, too, with “Rust Intro” at No. 50.
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The remaining artists on the record boast a various lineup of homegrown acts, spanning genres together with nation, indie rock, Punjabi, hip-hop and digital.
Cameron Whitcomb is the highest-ranking act after Drake, touchdown at No. 13 along with his viral monitor “Kingdom of Concern,” one other monitor that the streaming service listed as a song-of-the-summer contender. It has turn out to be an enormous second for the B.C. artist, securing his first prime 3 hit on the Billboard Canadian Scorching 100 chart dated Aug. 22. Whitcomb earns a second entry on the Spotify record at No. 49 with “You and Me.”
In recent times, the rising affect of Punjabi-Canadian artists on the world stage has turn out to be a significant pressure. Whereas the second half of 2025’s record featured a number of tracks by Karan Aujla and Ikky, they’re passing the torch to Shubh, who claims two entries on the 2026 record. He arrives at No. 23 with “Strikes” and “Bounce” at No. 35. It’s a welcome return for the Punjabi-Canadian act, who was on Spotify’s first-ever World Impression Record in 2025.
Viral act bbno$ lands at No. 41 with “diamonds are without end.” It’s been a yr of transformation for the Vancouver-based artist, born Alex Gumuchian, who has discovered success along with his impartial mission over the previous couple of years.
At No. 43, viral Quebec duo Angine de Poitrine makes their first and solely look on the record with “Fabienk,” arguably the group’s greatest hit from their album, Vol. II. The buzzy math rock group has made a world breakthrough with their polka-dot ensembles and distinctive sound.
Rounding out the record is what Spotify calls “a various cross-section of Canadian expertise,” together with: Toronto indie-rockers Good Child with “Cicada” (No. 29), producer Murda Beatz’s Prospa-featuring monitor “Child” (No. 33), Korean-Canadian rapper OXYNOVA’s “SSSAK” (No. 34) and Vancouver-based producer Asad Khan’s remix “Piya Ghar Aaya” (No. 39).
Learn extra right here. — H.T.S.
It’s not every single day that Montreal’s public transit is full of cowboy hats, Canadian tuxedos and Western belt buckles. Now, that’s a yearly mid-August custom for nation music lovers as LASSO celebrates its fifth version.
The big-scale nation music pageant, co-produced by Evenko and Dwell Nation, welcomed over 43,000 followers this yr on August 15 and 16. The lineup featured headliners Thomas Rhett and Mumford & Sons, together with established nation acts like Carly Pearce, The Band Perry, Outdated Dominion and Jon Pardi and rising Canadian stars like Cameron Whitcomb, Morgan Griffiths and Noah Brigden.
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Nick Farkas, Evenko’s senior vice-president of reserving, live shows and occasions, says it’s a quickly rising success story that has grown sooner than different main festivals like Osheaga (which he co-founded).
“5 years in, the place this pageant is at, for me, is simply unbelievable,” Farkas says. “We weren’t this far alongside on any pageant we’ve ever performed. It’s a ton of enjoyable to work on it.”
The pageant’s progress matches into an even bigger development of nation music all through the music panorama. Not too long ago, the style has surpassed hip-hop and pop as essentially the most profitable style on the prime of the charts.
This week, the Billboard Canadian Scorching 100 encompasses a uncommon sweep of nation songs comprising the highest 4 slots, with Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” at No. 1, Stella Lefty’s “Boston” at No. 2, Cameron Whitcomb’s “Kingdom of Concern” at No. 3 and Morgan Wallen’s “Been By Now” at No. 4.
That potential was first effervescent when LASSO started 5 years in the past, nevertheless it was unexpected in Canada simply 5 years earlier than that.
“We had one enviornment nation present each few years,” Farkas explains. “[The scene] was non-existent, and we had no nation radio, so it was not on anybody’s radar. We began seeing a shift once we booked a present with Luke Bryan in 2016 and it offered out the Bell Centre in like a day. We had been like, “Holy crap, that’s, there’s one thing happening right here with a few of this newer nation stuff.”
Evenko later rolled the cube with a large-scale pageant, combining the rising world attraction of nation music with the Quebec and Canadian scene, giving native nation musicians a worldwide stage and highlight that didn’t beforehand exist within the metropolis.
This yr, Lasso noticed a report 30% turnout from exterior Quebec, a “enormous win,” per Farkas, that has cemented the pageant’s nationwide and worldwide repute.
Learn extra right here. — Richard Trapunski & Stefano Rebuli
Historical past Ottawa is formally open.
The town’s latest music hub is the primary enlargement of the favored five-year-old Toronto music venue co-owned by Drake and Dwell Nation. In celebration of its public opening, the homegrown rapper took to social media to specific his pleasure.
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Drake hints that there may very well be extra expansions coming whereas thanking Dwell Nation “for giving me the continued belief on a journey that I hope is shared with each metropolis and nation worldwide” and teases an in-person expertise in Ottawa, revealing that he “can be there to drop off my private contact to Ottawa quickly.”
The two,000-person venue will welcome dozens of worldwide artists to the nation’s capital, cementing the nation’s capital as a music hub exterior of the larger ones in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Artists slated to carry out on the venue embrace: Two Door Cinema Membership, Modest Mouse, Wolf Parade, Owen Riegling, Jamie Effective and Thundercat, amongst others.
Learn extra right here. — Heather Taylor-Singh
