Emerging musicians Haley Blais, YSN Fab and Charlie Houston will join Maggie Andrew, the 2024 winner of CBC’s annual search to find the next great Canadian artist, and receive crucial tools to help them become “JUNO ready”.
Haley’s defiant scream-into-your-pillow pop anthems have amassed 20 million streams worldwide and sold out headline shows across North America, the EU, UK, and it all began in 2014 when she started recording and releasing songs from her bedroom. With her 2018 EP Let Yourself Go providing a breakout success with songs like “Small Foreign Faction” and “Seventeen,” Haley has been shaping her songwriting craft ever since with more infectious melodies and turns-of-phrase that are as humorous as they are poignant.
In 2020, Haley released her debut full-length album Below the Salt, produced by Tennis and Louise Burns and led i-D to describe her as “Canada’s nostalgia pop queen.” Haley’s latest sophomore effort Wisecrack is concerned with conscience, morality, and the superego. It’s “bleak but true,” as Haley puts it. “Am I a good person or not? Are we all doing okay? Am I a good daughter? Sister? Partner? Friend?” Haley’s new album is more mature, confessional, focused, and darker than anything she has yet produced. The existential, everyday worries we all contain but rarely share are laid bare across 11 songs exquisitely performed with profundity, grace, and humour. All of Wisecrack is textured and wryly poetic, somewhere between childhood memory and the creation of a new self.
Hailing from the Winter City of Winnipeg, Canada, YSN Fab is a rising artist proudly putting his city on the map. Although he is fairly new to his craft, YSN Fab has bloomed into a world-class songwriter that has taken the music industry by storm gaining fans worldwide. Fab’s musical talent speaks for itself, but it is his ability to take his fans on a deep and personal journey that has separated him into a class of his own.
After gaining traction with singles in 2019, Fab released his debut album Made 4 More in January 2020, followed by a deluxe version and his second album, Winnipeg’s Anomaly, later that year. In 2021, he dropped Made 4 More 2 to critical acclaim, featuring his first US collaboration with Luh Kel. Fab continued to build momentum in 2022, releasing two EPs in 2023: Thru The Thunder and After The Storm. With over 80 million streams and 20 million YouTube views in just three years, Fab is emerging as Canada’s next international music export, putting Winnipeg on the map.
Raised in Toronto, Houston was gifted a guitar by her father at eight. Unlike many, she focused on creating original music rather than covers, learning production to explore new creative realms. Her music, known for its technical nuance and nostalgic themes, is influenced by her personal experiences, including a transformative breakup that led her to scrap an entire album. After a brief stint at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, a bad psychedelic experience caused Houston to drop out and struggle with existential anxiety. Returning to Toronto, she reconnected with an old friend who reignited her passion for song writing.
Working with producer Chris Yonge, Houston released her debut EP I Hate Spring in 2021, catching the attention of electronic duo ODESZA and landing her a spot on their Grammy-nominated album and tour. She also supported Charlotte Cardin on tour and released her second EP Bad Posture in 2022. By 2023, she achieved significant streaming success and critical acclaim. Gearing up to release her debut album Big After I Die, Houston has shifted to dynamic songwriting without relying on production, exploring themes of co-dependency.
A rising star, singer-songwriter Maggie Andrew draws together a melange of influences in her lavish, innovative (s)alt-pop, fusing the likes of irreverent punk, melodic rap, simmering R&B, and fang-bearing indie rock for her debut EP, DAY JOB. Andrew cut her teeth working in LA with artists and producers like Blackbear, Ash Riser (Kendrick Lamar, AB-Soul), Doc McKinney (The Weeknd, Drake), and YetiBeats (Doja Cat, SZA), and has been covered in Rolling Stone, Billboard, and AltPress.
She’s amassed over 6M+ streams globally and has been roundly recognized for her work, winning the 2024 ECMA African Canadian Artist of the Year, placing as a finalist in the 2023 CBC Searchlight Top 10 and winning the SOCAN x Sirius XM Young Canadian Songwriters Award in 2021. Maggie kicked off her live performance career at ECMA 2023 and tore the roof off the joint. She has since been named the Halifax Wavemaker for the 2024 JUNOS, played the inaugural Crescendo Fest, and performed on the 2024 ECMA Awards Show before heading off to take the stage at The Great Escape.
