CBC Music Festival: 5 Toronto acts you won't want to miss
CBC News | Posted: May 27, 2016 9:00 AM | Last Updated: May 27, 2016
Hey Rosetta, Alvvays, The New Pornographers headlining 2016 CBC Music Festival
The CBC Music Festival will take over Echo Beach on Saturday, May 28 with headliners Hey Rosetta, Alvvays, The New Pornographers and Tokyo Police Club set to take the stage.
But, here are 5 other artists and musicians that you won't want to miss at the festival.
1. Maestro Fresh Wes
He's often referred to as "The Godfather of Canadian Hip-Hop", rapper Maestro Fresh Wes returns to a Toronto stage for the 2016 CBC Music Festival. In the late 80s he became the first Canadian rapper to have a Top 40 hit with Let Your Backbone Slide. To date, he has two Juno Awards under his belt. One of those wins was for the first-ever Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 1991. His latest album Orchestrated Noise was released in 2013.
2. Whitehorse
Musicians Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet make up Hamilton's husband-wife duo Whitehorse. The two toured in each other's bands for years, but they put aside their award winning individual careers to build a new band out of their exceptional guitar playing, songwriting and his-and-her harmonies.
3. Julian Taylor
Toronto's Julian Taylor is an award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist who began his music career as a teenager playing at open stages around the GTA. He's released nine albums that range from roots, rock and soul to R&B.
4. Zaki Ibrahim
Zaki Ibrahim is a South African-Canadian singer-songwriter who was born in British Columbia. Her songs blend soul, jazz, R&B and electronic music. She spent her childhood living in various places including Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, France and Lebanon. Zaki was nominated for a Juno Award in the R&B/Soul Recording of the Year category in 2009 for her single Money.
5. John River
Mississauga's John River started rapping when he was in Grade 10 after returning from playing soccer in Europe. The video for his song Hope City 2 has more than 500,000 views on YouTube and was nominated for a MuchMusic Video Award.