The year in Canadian music: the good, the bad and the drama

It's been quite a year in Canadian music, from Drake's very public feud with Kendrick Lamar to Punjabi rapper Karan Aujla winning the Fan Choice Award at the Junos. 

Music journalists Rosie Long Decter and Natalie Harmsen join guest host Ali Hassan to reflect on the year in Canadian music, highlighting the artists, albums and trends that defined the sound of our country in 2024. 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Ali: When you think of the Canadian artist who made a big impact in 2024, Mustafa is on top of many lists. Natalie, yours is no exception. Tell me why he was the artist of the year for you. 

Natalie: Oh my goodness. Well, for so many reasons. I mean, first of all, his 2024 album, Dunya, is gorgeous, like it's just so beautiful. I think it just really shows how much he's progressed as a singer and a songwriter, honing in on some deeply, deeply personal stories through each of his songs on that album. But as well, this has been a really big year for him charity-wise. He did those Artists For Aid fundraisers for Gaza and Sudan. He had some really high profile conversations with Angelina Jolie and with Dua Lipa, just talking about all of the disruptions going on in the world. So for me, Mustafa's an artist that really has been blending his artistry with his activism, and this year he just did a really, really great job of showing people that he is capable of that. 

Ali: Rosie, tell us about your pick for Canadian artist of the year. 

Rosie: That is the Alberta artist Cindy Lee and their album Diamond Jubilee, which had a really big breakthrough this year. It got a very rave review from Pitchfork and broke out as this underground crossover success. Cindy Lee's tour started selling out, it felt like everyone was talking about it. And I think it's a really gorgeous record. You can hear that it's very unconventional sounding, it sounds a little rough-and-tumble, in a way that a lot of rock music and indie pop music doesn't sound today. I think that that really resonated with people and maybe told us a little something about what might be missing from the music landscape today. 

Ali: This album was blowing up last spring. And then Patrick Flegel, who is the artist behind Cindy Lee, pulls the plug on a 25-city U.S. tour and then retreats from the spotlight, something that they never enjoyed to begin with. How does that turn of events deepen the mythology around this record? 

Rosie: Even before that happened, I think there was already kind of an understanding that this might be the last record for this project. And I think it just kind of reinforced that Pat Flegel is really an outsider artist, you know? The way he released this album was also unconventional, to use that word again. He put it on YouTube as a single two-hour link and also released it as a Geocities download. It's not on Spotify, it's not on the major streaming platforms. So, this is really something that's saying, "I'm going to do things differently. I'm not going to fit the very corporate-dominated mold of rock music today." I think that that idiosyncrasy really spoke to people. And you can hear it in the sound of the record, too. I think it got people really excited about a different way of doing things in the music landscape. 

Ali: I think the most exciting part about any year in music is seeing an artist who's been hovering under the radar and then suddenly they have their big breakout moment, like Nemahsis. More than just being a great pop album, Verbathim is also a great underdog victory story, which I've been following quite keenly. Tell us what brought Nemahsis to this moment. 

Natalie: She's gone through quite a battle in the last year and a bit. She was dropped by her label and really didn't even know if she'd be able to make it in the music industry after that.

She called some other labels up, was trying to get signed, it didn't really work out. And then she decided, "I'm going to go it alone." And she released this album, her debut album, independently — and it's stunning. She's received a lot of coverage, not just from us at CBC, but NME, Exclaim! has written about her. And earlier this year she was performing and Stevie Wonder showed up to catch a performance, which I think is a really incredible indicator of just how things are coming along for her because she really believed in herself. So it's been a good year for Nemahsis.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.