July 04, 2016
This past weekend on July 2, Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station launched a five week long series celebrating Canadian music. Dubbed ‘The New Canada,’ the show aims to highlight the tunes that are making waves in the country and defining our current cultural footprint. The CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos kicked things off as the first host, beginning his show with A Tribe Called Red’s “Stadium Pow Wow” featuring Black Bear.
Beats 1 has lined up four more Canadian music personalities to take care of hosting duties, and those will be: Toronto’s 102.1 The Edge radio host Josie Dye on July 9, Montreal pop singer/songwriter Coeur de pirate on July 16, Broken Social Scene’s fearless leader Kevin Drew on July 23, and his sometimes partner-in-crime, Metric frontwoman Emily Haines on July 30.
Strombo told the Financial Post that it would be “impossible” to create an hour of radio that could represent a full picture of who Canadians are, adding, “What I worry about is if I can create a show that gives you an idea globally about what’s cool and what’s happening here … reflecting the coast-to-coast-to-coast of this country.”
A weighty task, indeed. Check out his episode at Apple Music now and decide for yourself how he did.
In Other News:
- The Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre officially opened on Canada Day!
- R.I.P., Toronto’s King Reign.
- Horses Records in Vancouver will be closing next month.
- Tanya Tagaq has some choice words for a certain offensively-named band.
- Festival Lineups: Island Soul, Supercrawl
