Breaking down the standout musical moments on Law & Order Toronto

In the opening moments of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent's series premiere, after the franchise's iconic "dun-dun" intro, the show's first victim falls off his yacht into Lake Ontario. While scenes like this are a staple of Law & Order shows, the song playing — "Twennies" by Toronto synth-pop act Dragonette — helps drive home this offshoot's brand new setting. 

Law & Order, a series that first started airing in 1990, has occasionally extended beyond its New York City headquarters, landing in the U.K. in 2009 and San Diego in the 2002 reality spin-off, Crime & Punishment. But Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, which premiered on Feb. 22 on Citytv and aired its finale on Thursday night, marks the franchise's first Canadian entry. 

In order to give the show a distinctly Canadian identity, the series prominently features Toronto landmarks including Union Station, City Hall and, of course, copious shots of the CN Tower. Crimes draw inspiration from the Rob Ford crack scandal and the recent criticisms against Loblaw chairman Galen Weston Jr. over food price inflation. 

But an equally important local component is the show's soundtrack.

Moments like party scenes, car rides and hockey games provided opportunities for the show's music supervisor, John Rowley, to incorporate songs to build out its sonic world. 

"I think it should be music that Canadians, first and foremost, will recognize," Rowley explained, of his approach to the series. "We want to hopefully have this show travel outside of Canada, and what a great opportunity to have music from Canadian artists be heard.... It's an opportunity to introduce their music to perhaps a wider audience, which is always what music supervisors live for." 

While not every song featured on the show's first season was Canadian — "You try to respond to the moment that you're presented with," Rowley says — Canadian music fans will likely be entertained by snippets of tracks by Charlotte Cardin, Georgia Harmer and the Tragically Hip playing in the background of certain scenes. Below, Rowley breaks down some of the season's musical moments. 

'Confetti,' Charlotte Cardin (Episode 3, 'The Real Eve') 

"I've loved Charlotte's music from the first time I heard [2016's 'Like it Doesn't Hurt']. Her voice is incredible, the production, the writing — everything. Since the first time I heard her, and placed 'Like it Doesn't Hurt' on Season 1 of Mary Kills People, she's gone from being relatively unknown outside of Quebec to now being somebody who fills Massey Hall, and it's wonderful to see that. She's a star. I was delighted that she let us use her amazing music. I love 'Confetti.'" 

'Superstitious,' Friyie (Episode 5, 'Bleeding Hearts') 

"In that episode, the characters are Ghanaian immigrants to Canada so I was interested in featuring Toronto artists with Ghanaian roots. I was searching a little bit and interestingly the Toronto Star had just done an article featuring some Afro-Canadian artists and Friyie's name was there. I started listening and loved what I was hearing, so that's how that came to be." 

'Homes,' Georgia Harmer (Episode 6, 'Minnow and the Shark') 

"That seemed like a great opportunity to find a placement for an emerging Canadian artist. I pitched three songs for that, and Georgia's song won, and I'm glad it did because she's a great artist and she's going to go on to big things." 

'Athena's Song,' Sydney Ozerov-Meyer (Episode 7, 'The Sound of Silence') 

In this episode, guest star Sydney Ozerov-Meyer plays a musician who gets a big break on a popular radio program. During a scene in-studio, she performs an original song, a track that the real-life actor wrote several years ago "on the anniversary of my friend's passing as a sort of catharsis," as she explained in an Instagram post. "I never really thought anyone would hear it.... The show gave me the chance to revisit the piece and finally complete it." 

"[The show's producers] asked me if I could clear some songs that [Ozerov-Meyer] could cover, but they also asked me to have a listen to the song that Sydney had written and recorded as a potential thing that she could perform for that scene. So I listened to it and gave my thoughts, which were that the song was great and that this would really work.

"So we looked into some other songs, but as we were going through that process, it became clear when it came time to shoot that that was going to be the song because it was just perfect." 

'Fifty-Mission Cap,' the Tragically Hip (Episode 8, 'Boys Will Be Boys') 

"I spent a year [at music publishing company Peermusic Canada] as their sync manager representing [the Tragically Hip's] catalogue for film and television licensing. So I had an opportunity to pitch Tragically Hip songs and got to know their then-management a little bit. So when the opportunity came along for this — a hockey episode; right off the bat, there's guys hitting others into the boards — I thought, 'What classic hockey songs do we have in Canada?' I pitched a few, but I was secretly hoping that people would love 'Fifty-Mission Cap' as much as I did, and luckily they did, and the band was, wonderfully, interested and up for it.... That was a real treat to see that one."