Johnny Orlando: 5 songs that changed my life

When Johnny Orlando first started posting cover songs on YouTube, he was a well-coiffed eight-year-old still in the early stages of discovering who he was and what music he liked.

Naturally, he gravitated toward whatever was popular: Shawn Mendes, the Chainsmokers and Justin Bieber, a fellow Canadian who was discovered on YouTube a few years before him. While Orlando didn't experience the same immediate rise as Bieber — "Obviously we're in very different stages, and I haven't even hit the stage that he was at when he was 16," he tells CBC Music — Orlando is nevertheless grateful for the way his career has unfolded so far. Among his accomplishments so far, Orlando has earned the MTV Europe Music Award for best Canadian act three times, been nominated for a Juno Award, racked up over 500 million views on YouTube and in 2018, he signed to Universal Music Canada.   

Orlando, now 19, has now spent about half his life making music, but he is only just releasing his official debut album, all the things that could go wrong. No longer bound to cover songs, Orlando has gradually found his own identity in an amorphous pop sound that also draws heavily from R&B, dance and hip-hop elements. (Orlando notes Bieber's 2013 release, Journals, as a pivotal album that inspired his shift in sound.) And with that comes a newfound depth and confidence in his music as the Toronto artist finally learns to dig deeper into his songwriting, diving into more mature subjects like dating, anxiety and the pressures of social media. 

To mark the release of Orlando's new album, CBC Music spoke with the pop singer about five songs that changed his life, many of which have gone on to inspire the music that he makes now. Scroll down to see his song selections. 

'Landslide,' Fleetwood Mac 

"It was the first Fleetwood Mac song that I ever heard and growing up, I really related to that song. I kind of thought that I would never age, in a strange way. I am now getting into the adult thing, but as a kid I thought I was going to be a kid forever. And that's just not the reality, and it was a very hard realization that, you know, it ends. Everything ends at some point. That song is very comforting to me; I didn't really understand the meaning until I got a little bit older, and I think it's a beautiful song. It changed the way that I listened to songs, I think, because it was one of the first songs where I really took in the lyrics and was like, 'Wow, this means a lot to me.'"

On relating to Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks's struggle in the song to choose between a career in music or going back to school: 

"I applied to universities, and I got into [Ivey Business School] at Western University, which was always my dream. And it was hard to say no, to be honest. I technically deferred, but I'm not going. There's been moments in my music career where I'm like, 'You know what, maybe I should just quit and become a lawyer like my dad, or become a doctor.' But ultimately, I think it's a wanting of what you don't have. I've just been doing music for so long that sometimes I just wonder what else is out there." 

'Last Kiss,' Pearl Jam 

"So 'Landslide,' 'Last Kiss,' and any old song that I know is all from my dad. He played all that stuff around the house, and this one is significant to me because it's the first song that I ever got sad about when I listened to the lyrics. My dad had played it for years and years and years, and I knew all the words, but I was probably eight or nine years old when I realized that it was about this fatal car crash. And many years later, something similar happened in my life, and I wrote a song about that and it was very much inspired by 'Last Kiss.'

"But ['Last Kiss'] was very formative for me in realizing that music was more than just a catchy melody. It's very impactful, you really feel what the writer feels, but it's also not hard to understand — you don't have to Genius the lyrics, it's all right there in front of you. And I find that really interesting and really accessible. I love writing stuff like that, where it's not spelled out for you — maybe there's an abstract line every now and again — but the words are there and it's up to you to feel the emotion."

'Mistletoe,' Justin Bieber

"I feel like I have to include this because that was the first YouTube cover I ever made when I was eight years old with my sister. I do like this song, but it hasn't had a 'Landslide'-type of influence on my life. However, it did kind of start everything. And we've done anniversary covers throughout the years; I have a proper studio version on my Apple Music and Spotify."

On how he chose which songs to cover when he was younger: 

"We always looked at what was popular and just whatever I liked. And I was a little kid, so little kids generally like radio songs that appeal to a wide audience. So we made whatever was popular: One Direction, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, anything. I liked singing other people's songs because it was just fun for me to put my own spin on it. But eventually, I wanted to branch out. I wanted people to make covers of my songs. And still to this day, when I see people making covers of my songs, it's pretty cool. It's cool to be that inspiration to somebody." 

'Wish You Well,' Amir Obè 

"That was one of those songs where I was like, 'That is what I want my album to sound like.' It's like a Kanye/Kid Cudi fusion with pop and R&B. There's really catchy melodies, but it's also very space-y. And he's talking about cool stuff — like, I feel cool when I sing the song. Everything that song is, is what I want my music to sound like. Obviously, I'm going to tweak it to my liking because I can't really pull off the Amir Obè cool-guy thing." 

'Wet Dreamz,' J. Cole  

"That was the first J. Cole song that I ever heard. I wasn't really into rap at all, but this was the first song where I loved the lyrics, I loved what it sounded like. It's so beautiful and tells this great story. And that was the first album I ever bought, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. Rap has become such a big part of the music that I listen to and it's such a big inspiration for my music, even though I don't make rap. I use rap drums in a lot of my songs, and I love the whole art of sampling, which we did on 'Blur.' I really love what rappers do lyrically and I just think that whole genre is so interesting. I love seeing the progression of what rap looked like 20 years ago, and even 10 years before that. I just love the genre and the culture it has built — that one song introduced me to that whole world."