24 ARTISTS TO LISTEN TO IN 2024
BY BRENESSA ROACH | JANUARY 3, 2024
Happy New Year!
Last year in 2023, we recommended you 23 Canadian artists to listen to in 2023 and that blog was a success. So, we are back this year with 24 artists to share with you. These 24 artists are from all over the world and they made an impact in 2023 and we think they will make an even bigger impact this year in 2024. All that being said, check out these 24 artists.
CLUB BOYBND is an independent Korean-Canadian duo from Toronto consisting of BU-WAN (formerly known as Justin Trash) and Roc Lee. They currently have around 300K monthly listeners on Spotify. They debuted on February 3rd, 2023 with a Korean R&B version of SouljaBoy’s song “kiss me thru the phone” produced by ditch david. After posting videos on TikTok promoting their debut song and music video, it went viral gaining millions of views and streams and even charting in countries like; Malaysia and Singapore. Since their debut, “kiss me thru the phone” has garnered over 8.3 million streams on Spotify alone.
After their debut, they released the single “like this” in March 2023 followed by the release of “confessions” in June 2023. “confessions” was their version of USHER’s “Confessions”. On March 22nd, 2023, CLUB BOYBND did their first show as openers for GEMINI’s “Still Blue” North American tour in Los Angeles.
CLUB BOYBND ended the summer of 2023 with the release of “hmu” which was performed and written by Roc Lee (check out our interview with him to read more about “hmu”). Additionally, they had their headline shows in Toronto on August 4th and in Los Angeles on August 11th.
In September 2023, CLUB BOYBND travelled to Singapore to perform at Music Matters Live alongside other artists such as; Ethan Low, HNATA, Keenan Te and more. They also performed at Los Angeles’s Korean Festival in October.
On November 17th, 2023, they released the single “naturally” which was in collaboration with Toronto artists Nilo Blues and yanzzy and produced by Jesse Sukunda and Jmilly. Following the release of “naturally”, CLUB BOYBND headlined at Beyond X in NYC in and Kristmas Evl in San Juan, Puerto Rico in December.
Their last release of 2023 was a sped-up album on December 15th which included the sped-up versions of all 5 of their songs.
2023 was a crazy and successful year for CLUB BOYBND with their debut and going viral. We believe that in 2024, CLUB BOYBND will only get bigger and hopefully perform more in different cities.
Listen to “kiss me thru the phone” by CLUB BOYBND on Spotify:
Check out CLUB BOYBND on Instagram: @clubboybnd, @antikpopstar and @_roclee
Townewest is a independent Los Angeles based boy band consisting of fixed members Jonum and Bouquet and drummer Gio Alford. Their music falls under the category of Anti-Pop and they often blend elements from the genres; Alternative, Indie Pop and Chill. They currently have around 4.8K monthly listeners on Spotify. They debuted on December 15th, 2022 with the single “Softspoken” which currently has almost 10K streams on Spotify.
Their first release of 2023 was in January for the song “BIG HEAD” which was in collaboration with Los Angeles based Korean-American artist Bachyard Ghost. Both of these singles were pre-release tracks for their first album Save Sara which came out on February 14th, 2023. In May 2023, they released Garden Audience which is an album consisting of instrumental tracks. In July 2023, they released the single “sunburn”.
Townewest performed together for the first time in Los Angeles on August 11th, 2023 at CLUB BOYBND’s headline show “BOYBND & FRIENDS”. A few days later, they released the single “spider!” and in September, they performed at Two Rooms in Los Angeles. The tracks “sunburn” and “spider” were both pre-release track for their second album before it’s too late which came out on September 22nd, 2023.
Following the release of their album, Townewest were promoting heavily on TikTok and Instagram reels. Their Instagram reel using the song “MAKE UR MIND UP” featuring BU-WAN of CLUB BOYBND and Bachyard Ghost went viral. This resulted in the reel garnering over 4 million views and Townewest’s Instagram gaining over 10K followers.
Additionally, on October 4th, 2023, Townewest performed at Breaking Sound in Los Angeles – which was their last performance of 2024.
2023 was such a successful year for Townewest and we only hope that they will continue to grow this year and hopefully perform more in Los Angeles and other cities.
They have a song coming out on January 9th titled “Minimal” and it’s in collaboration with maxime. Pre-save the song so you don’t miss the release.
Listen to “MAKE UR MIND UP” by Townewest, BU-WAN and Bachyard Ghost on Spotify:
Check out Townewest on Instagram: @townewest1, @imjonum, @bouquetlord and @gioalford
tanny ng is an independent Vietnamese singer, songwriter and producer currently studying in Boston, United States. He currently has around 46K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on December 9th, 2021 with the single “ambivalence”. Followed by his debut, he released a song titled “this is what being in christmas alone feels like”.
In 2022, he started the year off with the release of “stuck with u” in May. On July 18th, 2022, tanny released his debut album is it 2 a.m at your place?. He released a few more singles which were pre-release tracks for his second album amber’s playlist which came out on December 17th.
On February 15th, 2023, tanny released two singles “somebody loves you” and “let me go”. Both those singles were pre-release tracks for his EP i’m glad you came, i’m sorry which came out on April 7th, 2023. We had the opportunity to do a press coverage for the release of that EP which you can read it here.
Starting a new era, tanny released the single “two of us” on June 9th, 2023. This single was in collaboration with kinu and wilngu. As well, this song is one of tanny’s most popular with over 220K streams on Spotify alone. His next release was another collaboration with kinu and it was for the song “SHAME”. This is his most popular song with over 300K Spotify streams. Additionally, this song was featured in Spotify curated playlists such as; New Music Friday Vietnam and New Music Friday Phillippines. tanny also collaborated with Korean-American artist juhye for the song “my, my, my” which came out on August 18th, 2023. We had the chance to interview him for this release.
All three of those songs were included on tanny’s third album affection’s blind which released on November 10th, 2023.
Hopefully in 2024, we can see tanny ng perform live and also release more music.
Listen to “SHAME” by tanny ng and kinu on Spotify:
Check out tanny ng on Instagram: @_tannyng_
BNZA is a Tibetan-Canadian singer, songwriter and producer from Toronto, Canada. He currently has around 11K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on May 10th, 2019 with the single “No Doubt”. Followed by his debut, he released the single “I’m Better” on July 5th, 2019.
In January 2020, BNZA released the single “Fire” which is one of his most popular songs with a little over 200K streams on Spotify. He also released “Big Trouble” in March 2020. Both these singles were pre-release tracks for his debut album Soul Tree which came out on May 1st, 2020.
Following the release of his debut album, he released the single “SLIDE” in July 2020. This song is his most popular song and garnered over 1.2 million streams on Spotify alone. He ended the year off with the single “UP” in October 2020.
In 2021, BNZA released three singles; “DANGEROUS” in January, “Die Young” in June and “Its like that” in August. In 2022, he released four singles; “10 AM” in February, “Problems” in May, “BOUNCE BACK” in August and “Im (not) okay (demo)” in December.
2023 was a successful year for BNZA starting off with the release of his single “SELFISH” which garnered over 140K streams on Spotify. On April 23rd, 2023, BNZA performed at his headline show in Toronto alongside melatonin boy. This was such a fun and successful show and we actually did a press coverage for it.
On August 4th, 2023, BNZA released the single “U” with Toronto based producer Young Jin. He also performed this song for the first time this day as he performed at CLUB BOYBND’s headline show “BOYBND & FRIENDS”. Followed by the release of “U”, BNZA released “WHOS NEXT” in October 2023.
On November 5th, 2023, BNZA opened for Jimmy Brown and Rovv’s “Like The First Time” tour. His last release of the year was on December 19th for the single “LIQUOR TALKS”. This song is in the garage/drum & bass genre which is different to BNZA’s usual R&B style, but it’s still a very catchy song.
We believe that in 2024, BNZA will continue to perform and grow musically. We also hope that he releases an EP or album soon.
Listen to “SLIDE” by BNZA on Spotify:
Check out BNZA on Instagram: @bnza.ca
melatonin boy is a Chinese singer, songwriter and producer based in Toronto, Canada. He currently has around 109K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on November 12th, 2021 with the single “tic tac toe”.
In 2022, he released the single “late for u” in February and “Pink Shoes” in March 2022 which was a collaboration with Monsoon.. On July 1st, 2022, he collaborated with Korean-American artist juhye on the single “running down”. This is his most popular song with over 2.6 million streams on Spotify alone.
Following “running down”, he released the single “flyaway” with Aleebi, juhye, siopaolo and Nomichit. This was a single released through the collective EXPOSITION. He ended 2022 off with the release of “dirty af1s” in October 2022 followed by a remix version with Aleebi in November.
On January 20th, 2023, melatonin boy entered a new era with the release of the single “want more”. On February 22nd, 2023, melatonin boy opened for RUSSELL! in Toronto alongside BNZA and Ziya.
In March, he released “we know it’s not, babe” which is our personal favourite song of his. We got to see him perform it live at his headline show with BNZA in Toronto on April 23rd. Both “want more” and “we know it’s not, babe” were pre-release tracks for his debut EP could you call me tonight? which came out on May 12th, 2023. We have an interview with melatonin boy about this EP and we highly recommend you read it.
His last release of 2023 was on August 25th with C.Y.ing for the single “still the same”. On November 5th, 2023, he opened for Jimmy Brown and Rovv’s North American tour “Like The First Time”.
At the end of 2023, melatonin boy was teasing snippets of music on TikTok so, we are very excited to hear the full songs when those release and hopefully even see him perform some more.
Listen to “we know it’s not, babe” by melatonin boy on Spotify:
Check out melatonin boy on Instagram: @melatoninboy
kuiper is a South Korean singer, songwriter and producer from Toronto, Canada. He is under the BAD KIDS collective and currently has around 100K monthly listeners on Spotify. He used to release music under his real name, but he debuted officially as kuiper on February 17th, 2023 with the single “forget”. Followed by his debut, he released the single “SINNER” with Mo. and cinna.
On April 12th, 2023, we saw kuiper perform alongside Danny Park and WIMY for an event called “Four Wheels Live” hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Music Program. A few days later, kuiper released his third single “kerosene”.
On May 26th, 2023, kuiper released the single “blood on the floor”. This is our personal favourite and we had the chance to interview kuiper about the meaning behind the song. This is also a fan favourite as it has over 1.6 million streams on Spotify alone. In June, he collaborated with Aleebi and myno for the single “anythinguwant2”. Also in June, kuiper released the single “options” which is his most popular song with almost 2 million streams just on Spotify.
Following the release of “options”, kuiper released “stay away” with Danny Park in July and “fool me twice.” on his birthday on September 8th, 2023. On September 18th, 2023, kuiper opened for Singaporean R&B trio brb., in Toronto for their “It’s Complicated” North American tour. kuiper was such an amazing performer and had the crowd so amped!
On October 20th, 2023, he released “bittersweet” which was in collaboration with jayya. His last release of 2023 was on November 24th for his debut EP aphrodisiac. This EP included his singles “fool me twice.”, “blood on the floor”, “options” and two new singles; “skin” and “city on fire” featuring Koven Wei.
Since kuiper debuted last year, it’s amazing to see how much he grew in just one year. We cannot wait to see his growth this year and hopefully see him open for more artists and maybe even headline his own show.
Listen to “blood on the floor” by kuiper on Spotify:
Check out kuiper on Instagram: @kuiper_xiii
hyejin is an independent South Korean Alt-R&B singer and songwriter based in New York, United States. She has around 190K monthly listeners on Spotify currently. She debuted on June 26th, 2020 with the single “Tell Me”.
In April 2021, she released her second single “Lucid”. A little over a year later, she released the single “I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE” in October 2022 followed by “STAY” on December 8th, 2022. She ended 2022 off with the release of “SABOTAGE” which is her most popular song with over 3.7 million streams.
On January 27th, 2023, she released the single “U GOOD?”. This single was a pre-release track for her debut EP WHAT A SHAME! which came out on March 3rd, 2023. The title track for this EP that came out the same day as well was “ALL MY FRIENDS HATE YOU!” which was in collaboration with My Friend Shawn.
Followed by her debut EP, she released the single “I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE PT. 2” in May which was in collaboration with the artists kasper and Aleebi. As well, she also released “DAVID LEE” in May which was a collaboration with hevel and lio.
On June 30th, she released “My Favourite Pillow”. On August 15th, 2023, she performed at EXPOSITION’s showcase “EXPO Fest” in Los Angeles. In September, she collaborated with kasper again for the single “SEEING PINK”.
Her last release of 2023 was on October 27th for the song “DIVINE”. This song in collaboration with Josh Makazo and it’s one of our favourite songs from hyejin’s discography.
Listen to “SABOTAGE” by hyejin on Spotify:
Check out hyejin on Instagram: @abbyhyejin
berryblue also known as blue is an independent pop singer, songwriter, producer and pianist from Dallas, Texas, United States. She currently has around 10.6K monthly listeners on Spotify. She debuted officially as berryblue on September 16th, 2022 with the single “COOKIE HOE”. Followed by her debut, she released “VIRUS” on October 28th. Her last release of 2022 was on November 25th for the single “POISON” which was a collaboration with Bowen Thi.
berryblue’s first release of 2023 was her debut EP GOT ME LIKE which includes our favourite song from her discography titled “FEELING LUCKY”. Following her debut EP, she released the single “Selfish” in August and “Enjoy Yourself” in October.
On November 3rd, 2023 she released the single “Boogeyman”. As well, on November 10th, she opened for Jimmy Brown and Rovv’s “Like The First Time” North American Tour show in Austin, Texas.
Her last release of 2023 was on December 22nd for the song “Passing Time”.
Listen to “FEELING LUCKY” by berryblue on Spotify:
Check out berryblue on Instagram: @berryb1ues
Ethan Low is an R&B Malaysian-Singaporean-Canadian artist from Toronto, Canada. He used to make music under a different alias and opened for JUNNY in September 2022 in Toronto for JUNNY’s “BLANC” North American Tour. He officially debuted under his name Ethan Low on February 28th, 2023 with the single “BUBBLY” produced by ditch david. This is his most popular song with over 12.8 million streams on Spotify alone. This was the song that had him go viral in Asia and all over TikTok because he was promoting this single a lot. He currently has around 450K monthly listeners on Spotify.
On March 16th, 2023, he opened for South Korean artist GEMINI’s “STILL BLUE” show in Toronto alongside Koven Wei. At midnight on March 17th, 2023, he released his second single “GEMINI” which currently has over 8.5 million streams on Spotify.
On April 19th, 2023, Ethan Low collaborated with South Korean singer Jimmy Brown for the single “SKINTIGHT” which was also produced by ditch david. This song has over 5 million Spotify streams and even has a music video for it filmed by LAB0916.
In May, Ethan released the single “NWYK” (Not Who You Know) followed by “BOUJEE” on June 30th, 2023. All of the singles he released since his debut were pre-release tracks for his debut album GEMINI which came out on July 31st, 2023. On August 4th, he was featured on Koven Wei’s single “MIDNIGHT” alongside 013.
On August 15th, 2023, Ethan Low performed at EXPOSITION’s first showcase “EXPO FEST” in Los Angeles. In September, he was part of Singapore’s Music Matters Live festival and performed there. Additionally, he also joined MICO for a few shows as an opener on MICO’s “Fantasy Tour”. Ethan also performed in Malaysia in October.
His last release of 2023 was on December 1st for the single “MOROS” which was highly anticipated as he teased it a lot on social media throughout the year. As well, on December 1st, he flew to LA to perform at MATCHES with Koven Wei and JUNNY.
We have been watching Ethan Low grow since March 2022 and we are so excited to see him continue to grow. He has his headline show coming up in Toronto on February 23rd so, if you can, make sure you get tickets here.
Listen to “BUBBLY” by Ethan Low on Spotify:
Check out Ethan Low on Instagram: @_ethanlow
Koven Wei is an independent Chinese-Canadian artist from Toronto, Canada. He has around 94K monthly listeners on Spotify currently. On April 29th, 2018, he released a cover of The Neighbourhood’s song “Sweater Weather” with Fruitypoppin. On August 30th, 2019 with the single “Only Answer She Knows” with biosphere and Summer Song.
His official solo debut was on November 27th, 2020 with the single “Endless”. On July 9th, 2021, Koven released the single “Sky Waltz” through LAB0916 which he is the Founder and Executive Producer of. In 2022, Koven Wei took a hiatus from releasing music to really find his sound. However, he did open for JUNNY’s “BLANC” North American tour in Toronto in September 2022 alongside Ethan Low. At this show, Koven performed unreleased songs that he was working on.
On February 10th, 2023, Koven Wei returned with a new sound and released the single “EVERYTHING IS RED”. This is one of our favourite songs and is also his most popular song with over 1.2 million streams on Spotify alone. On March 16th, 2023, Koven Wei opened for GEMINI’s “STILL BLUE” Tour in Toronto alongside Ethan Low. His single “BEFORE” with Indonesian artist HNATA came out on March 23rd.
In May 2023, Koven Wei collaborated with Aleebi for the single “LIPSTICK” which is another one of our favourite songs. We actually got to hear this song live in September 2022 before it was even completed so, it was cool to hear the final version. Koven and Aleebi also filmed a live performance video of it through LAB0916.
On June 30th, 2023, he released the single “LATE NIGHT TALKS”. This was the last single he released before the release of his debut EP BAMBINO which came out on August 4th, 2023. This was also his last release of 2023 and we had the opportunity to interview him about this EP, his musical journey, LAB0916 and more.
On September 18th, 2023, Koven Wei opened for Singaporean R&B trio brb. for their “It’s Complicated” North American tour in Toronto. Additionally, on December 1st, he performed in LA at “MATCHES” with Ethan Low and JUNNY.
Koven Wei is someone who we have watched grow since March 2022 too and we cannot wait to see his growth in 2024. As well, we are very excited to see his plans for LAB0916 in 2024.
Listen to “EVERYTHING IS RED” by Koven Wei on Spotify:
Check out Koven Wei on Instagram: @kovenwei
Chris LaRocca is an Alternative-Indie//R&B singer, songwriter and producer from Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. He currently has around 49K monthly listeners on Spotify. He released his first single “Closer” on January 27th, 2017. Followed by his debut, he released “Roses” in June 2017. Both of those singles were pre-release tracks for his debut EP Voila which came out on August 23rd, 2017.
In 2018, he released one single “Call Me Up” in February. On July 17th, 2019, he released his first album Saudade which included the singles; “Yardsale”, “Dead” with Young Clancy, “Dice Out”, “Heated Up” and “Salt” which were all released prior to the album.
In 2020, Chris released the singles; “In My Ends” in April, “Prom Night” in July and “Ice Blue” in November. As well, in October 2020, he co-wrote the song “I’m Ready For You” with Bryson Tiller which was included on Bryson’s album A N N I V E R S A R Y.
In 2021, he released the single “MIGHT CLOUD” which was in collaboration with Young Clancy. In 2022, Chris did not release any new music.
On March 3rd, 2023, Kali Uchis released her album Red Moon In Venus which included the song “Deserve Me” with Summer Walker that Chris LaRocca co-wrote and co-produced. On March 31st, 2023, he released his first single of the year titled “deep end”. This was a pre-release track for his EP perhaps! which came out on May 5th, 2023.
In June 2nd, 2023, Chris LaRocca co-wrote and co-produced “THE SOUND (Korean Ver.)” with South Korean pop group Stray Kids. On June 28th, 2023, he released the EP like u followed by the EP smile because it happened on July 28th, 2023.
On October 13th, 2023, Chris LaRocca released his second album *i cried my eyes out*. This was his last release of the year and he had a mini tour with this album release. He performed in Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. We actually had the chance to attend his Toronto show and cover it, so make sure to read it here. The song “i cried my eyes out” is our absolute favourite song of Chris’ so far and it was amazing to see it live.
Listen to “i cried my eyes out” by Chris LaRocca on Spotify:
Check out Chris LaRocca on Instagram: @chrislarocca_
Renao (pronounced ren-now) is a South Asian pop singer born in Bangalore, India and currently based in London, UK. He currently has a little over 200K monthly listeners on Spotify. He made his debut on December 3rd, 2021 with the single “Nobody”. This is our favourite song and also his most popular song with over 12.3 million streams on Spotify alone.
Following his debut, he released the singles “Struck Gold” and “Holding My Breath” in March 2022. All three of these singles were pre-release tracks for his debut EP From the South which came out on April 22nd, 2022. He also released the single “Moonwalking” in August 2022.
He started off 2023 with the release of “BREAK IT DOWN” on February 22nd followed by “LIFELINE” in March and “BLIND” in April. These three singles were pre-release tracks for his second EP DAY OFF which came out on May 17th.
On June 2nd, he released his first album A SPACE BETWEEN ORANGE & BLUE which included 9 tracks. One of our favourite songs by Renao is “JASMINE” which came out on October 4th. We discovered him through a TikTok that was sent to us. His latest release is from November 17th for the song “PRESSURE”.
We cannot wait to see what 2024 holds for Renao and hopefully he gains even more listeners. We also would love to see him perform live if possible.
Listen to “Nobody” by Renao on Spotify:
Check out Renao on Instagram: @renaomusic
WIMY (When I Met You) is a Filipino singer, songwriter and producer from Toronto, Canada. He currently has over 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He also is under the BAD KIDS collective. On April 12th, 2023, we saw WIMY perform alongside Danny Park and kuiper for an event called “Four Wheels Live” hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Music Program. It was cool to see WIMY perform before he even officially debuted. He made his official debut on April 21st, 2023 with the single “Sky Between The Trees”. This is one of our all time favourite songs from his discography so far.
On May 5th, 2023, WIMY was featured on Danny Park’s single “Hey!”. WIMY did not release any music until August 11th, 2023 when he released his second single “Hideaway”. ON August 18th, 2023, he collaborated with fellow BAD KIDS collective artist shae for the song “Anybody”. This was the song that made both shae and him blow up as it went viral in multiple countries in Asia and on TikTok. This song is his second most popular song with over 5.3 million streams on Spotify alone.
Following “Anybody”, he released the single “fall for me” in September 2023. On October 27th, 2023, he released the single “pages” which garnered over 6.3 million streams just on Spotify. This is another one of our favourite songs. His last release of 2023 was in November for the single “take a chance”.
So far for 2024, WIMY will be opening for Jen Moon and Emi Choi on February 16th so, make sure to get tickets here.
We are so excited to see WIMY grow even more in 2024 and hopefully release an EP or album. As well, we would love to see WIMY perform even more.
Listen to “pages” by WIMY on Spotify:
Check out WIMY on Instagram: @wimymusic
Blair Lee is an Alternative-Indie singer and songwriter from Toronto, Canada with around 27K monthly listeners on Spotify. She released her first single “Gladstone” on November 28th, 2019. This is her most popular song with over 1.5 million streams on Spotify.
Followed by her debut, she released the single “Less or More” with ModMaxx on March 27th, 2020. In February 2021, she released another song with ModMaxx titled “Lucifer”. She ended 2021 off with a collaboration with Sylo for the song “California” which is our favourite song of hers.
On September 8th, 2022, she released the single “Hurdles” followed by “Peachy World” in October and “Flower Mind” in November. These three songs were pre-release tracks for her debut EP The Puppy Game which came out on December 2nd, 2022.
She started 2023 off with the release of “Underdog” on March 23rd, 2023. Her second release of the year was in October for “Fold”. Her last release of the year was on November 30th, 2023 for the single “Same Place”.
Listen to “California” by Blair Lee and Sylo on Spotify:
Check out Blair Lee on Instagram: @blairalee
Russell Dimaano, known by his artist name Russell Groovy is an independent singer, songwriter and producer from San Fernando Valley, United States. He currently has around 1.3K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on July 4th, 2017 with the single “Lift Off” which was in collaboration with his cousin LaynoProd. Followed by his debut single, he released “End This Way” in November 2018 and two singles in 2019; “Deeper” and “No One” – which was in collaboration with Stract.
In 2020, he released one single titled “40ours” which was another collaboration with LaynoProd. On January 28th, 2021, Russell released the single “Westside Slide” which is his third most popular song with a little over 16K streams on Spotify. He continued to release singles throughout 2021. On September 21st, 2021, he released an album titled Space Kids which was in collaboration with Garret Rouleau and featured Krislette and Massa.Sol. Additionally, he released his 6 single debut EP Head n Heart on November 11th, 2021.
In 2022, Russell started to release a lot more music. He released his second EP ENCOUNTER on July 29th, 2022. This EP was in collaboration with Jonum – who is also in the boyband Townewest. On August 12th, 2022, Russell released another collaboration album with Garret Rouleau titled Tree House. On October 28th, 2022, Russell released an 11 track album titled Spooky Class of 22’. This was a collaboration album with Sicsad (Bouquet from Townewest). Russell ended 2022 off with the release of “Pull Thru” with nathawn.
Russell’s first release of 2023 was on February 3rd for the single “Close To You” which was in collaboration with Josiah Nichols and Garret Rouleau. This is Russell’s most popular song with over 140K streams on Spotify. Followed by the release of “Close To You”, Russell released the album Ultra Night Drive. This album consists of 13 songs and includes “Positions”, which is our favourite single on the album. Followed by that album, he released the single “Circles” on April 28th which was in collaboration with Josiah Nichols and Garret Rouleau.
Additionally, Russell was a part of Townewest for a while and worked on songs such as “BIG HEAD” and “stressin’”. He also performed at CLUB BOYBND’s headline show “BOYBND & FRIENDS” with Townewest.
While being an artist, he is also hosting a podcast/radio show called The Groovy Hour, you can listen on Spotify here.
Russell ended 2023 off with the release of “Run It” which is a pre-release track for his next EP Goodnight Groovy (which hopefully will come out in 2024). We did a press coverage for “Run It”, so make sure to read it to know more about the song meaning.
Listen to “Run It” by Russell Groovy on Spotify:
Check out Russell Groovy on Instagram: @russellgroovy
Alex Porat is a pop singer originally from Vancouver and currently based in Toronto, Canada. She currently has around 505K monthly listeners on Spotify. She started posting covers to YouTube in February 2017 with her first one being a cover of “It Ain’t Me” by Kygo and Selena Gomez. In May 2018, Glamour Magazine had Shawn Mendes react to her cover of “In My Blood”.
Her first song on Spotify was an acapella cover of Side Effects with Mike Tompkins. She officially debuted on June 28th, 2019 with the single “Insecure”. Followed by her debut, she released her debut EP Alexandra Porat on January 24th, 2020. This EP includes her most popular songs such as; “Don’t Watch Me Cry” with almost 40 million streams and “All I Want” with 24.3 million streams.
On October 21st, 2020, she released her second EP bad at breakups. Following that EP, she entered a new era and released the single “girlfriend” on February 24th, 2021. On May 5th, 2021, she released the single “dimension” followed by “bubblegum” on July 14th and “taxi” in August. These singles were all pre-release tracks for her debut album MISS SICK WORLD which came out on October 6th, 2021. This was the album that got us listening to Alex Porat.
In April 2022, she released the single “Pity Party” followed by “Sensitive” in May 2022. These two singles were featured on her EP Kiss Face which released on August 5th, 2022. “Sensitive” is also another popular song of Alex’s with almost 5 million streams on Spotify alone.
Alex Porat’s first release of 2023 was in February for the song “HATELOVE” – which is one of our all time favourites of hers so far. In May 2023, she released “I’m Not Crying”. Both of these singles were pre-release tracks for her last release of 2023 which was her EP Lovesick in October 2023.
So far for 2024, Alex Porat is joining Korean-American singer Eric Nam for his “House on a Hill” tour in Europe. In April 2024, she will also do a mini tour for her Lovesick EP. She will be performing in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto in April. You can get tickets here.
Listen to “HATELOVE” by Alex Porat on Spotify:
Check out young friend on Instagram: @youngfriend
Sammy Curcuru is a singer and songwriter from Detroit, United States with around 1.5K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on November 15th, 2022 with the single “im down if ur down” which is his most popular song with a little over 32K streams on Spotify.
On March 8th, 2023, he released the single “look @ u”. His last release of 2023 was on July 19th with the single “messy room”. This is the song that we discovered him by thanks to MICO’s playlist “mico selects”.
Hopefully this year in 2024, we get to hear more music from Sammy.
Listen to “messy room” by Sammy Curcuru on Spotify:
Check out Sammy Curcuru on Instagram: @sammycurcuru
shae is a Korean-Canadian R&B/Indie-Pop singer and songwriter from Toronto, Canada. She currently has around 600K monthly listeners on Spotify and is under the BAD KIDS Collective. She debuted on June 16th, 2023 with the single “SIMPLE”. Her second single “anybody” with WIMY came out on August 18th, 2023. This is her most popular song with over 5.5 million streams on Spotify alone and was even featured in playlists across Asia.
On November 3rd, 2023, she released the single “Half of Me” followed by “REPLAY” with hanuel and awodus on November 17th. That was shae’s last release of 2023.
So far for 2024, shae has an upcoming performance as an opener for Lyle Kam’s show on January 19th in Toronto. We cannot wait to go see this show and hear more music from shae!
Listen to “anybody” by shae and WIMY on Spotify:
Check out shae on Instagram: @shaekeandbake
yedira is an R&B/Contemporary artist from Malaysia with around 230K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on September 2nd, 2022 with the single “my only” which is in collaboration with the artist yuji. This is his most popular song with over 4.6 million streams on Spotify. Followed by his debut, he dropped the single “lovey dovey” with Quiet on November 4th, 2022.
In 2023, he started the year off with the release of “thinkin’” on January 15th which was another collaboration with yuji. In April, he collaborated with Quiet again for the single “missing u” and in May collaborated with asheu for the single “castle”.
On June 15th, yedira released the single “take it slow” which garnered over 1 million streams on Spotify. Followed by that, in August he was featured on MFMF.’s EP crying in the shower for the single “tick tock”.
On September 17th, he released the single “off without me” which was a collaboration with Aseekmars. His last release of 2023 was another collaboration with asheu and it was for the single “WDYS”.
We are so excited to hear what yedira releases in 2024 and we cannot wait to see his growth.
Listen to “take it slow” by yedira on Spotify:
Check out yedira on Instagram: @notyedira
Jen Moon is am R&B/Contemporary singer and songwriter from Toronto, Canada. She currently has around 28K monthly listeners on Spotify. She debuted on July 7th, 2020 with the single “Notice” followed by “Superego” on July 21st, 2020. Both of these singles were pre-release tracks for her debut EP Moonology which came out on August 11th, 2020. Following her debut EP, she released the single “Room for Two” in August 2020 which was a collaboration song.
In July 2021, she released the single “136”. She did not release any music throughout 2022.
In April 2023, she opened for Filipino artist RINI at his sold-out show in Montreal, Canada. As well, she performed at her first headline show on July 22nd, 2023 alongside BAD KIDS Collective and Kennen. She released her first and only single of 2023 on August 11th titled “Outl¡er”.
So far for 2024, she has a show coming up on February 16th in Toronto alongside Emi Choi so, if you can get tickets here!
Listen to “Outl¡er” by Jen Moon on Spotify:
Check out Jen Moon on Instagram: @jen.moon
Sylo is a Korean-Canadian singer-songwriter from Toronto, Canada with around 155K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on January 21st, 2020 with his debut album Sylo Songs. On March 11, 2020, Sylo released “Ginny” and “Hulu”. Ginny is currently his most popular song with over 12.4 million streams on Spotify alone. Additionally, he released “Citrus” in August 2020 and “Why R U Back?” in November 2020.
His first single of 2021 was in February for “575 (Demo)”. In 2021, he also released “Spirits” on April 13th and “Spacing Out” on December 2nd, 2021. “Spacing Out” was how we discovered Sylo as it was featured in Spotify’s curated playlist. “Mood Ring”.
On April 6th, 2022, Sylo released the single “Millions” followed by “Bento Box” and “American Idea” on May 5th, 2022 and “AIR” on November 9th. He ended 2022 off with the release of “Drop a Pin” on November 30th, 2022.
In 2023, he released his EP blanket on January 11th. This is one of our favourite album releases from 2023. On March 1st, 2023, Sylo performed at The Baby G in Toronto for his headline show with Blair Lee. As well, he performed in March as well in Texas at SXSW 2023. His last release of 2023 was “Mile End” which was done for A COLORS SHOW.
Sylo has been teasing new music on social media and we are so excited to hear it all in 2024.
Listen to “Ginny” by Sylo on Spotify:
Check out Sylo on Instagram: @sylooo
C.Y. Ing is a singer-songwriter under BAD KIDS Collective and based in Toronto, Canada. He currently has around 17.4K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on May 12th, 2022 with the single “Rebound”. Followed by his debut, he released the single “Snowing in May” in June 2022. He also released “Come True” in July 2022 and ended the year off with “Lucky Guy” in August 2022.
C.Y. Ing started 2023 off with the release of “Hear My Name Again” on February 3rd. His next release was on April 28th for the single “Love Redeemer” which is our favourite song of his so far. On June 9th, he released “you won’t be happy here” followed by “image” on June 30th. “image” is currently his most popular song with almost 230K streams on Spotify.
On July 28th, 2023, he released the single “Summer Girl” which was in collaboration with myno. In August, he collaborated with melatonin boy for the single “still the same” followed by a collaboration with Aleebi for the single “moonlight” which came out in September. His last release of 2023 was the single “still try” which was in collaboration with animozic.
Hopefully in 2024, we can hear some more music from C.Y. Ing and maybe even see him perform!
Listen to “Love Redeemer” by C.Y. Ing on Spotify:
Check out C.Y. Ing on Instagram: @c.y_ing
Seago is a modern hip hop singer and sognwriter from Brampton, Canada. He currently has around 79K monthly listeners on Spotify. He debuted on June 6th, 2022 with the single “Lawn”. Following his debut, he released “And For My Next Trick” on July 15th and “Frisbee” on October 5th. All three of these singles were pre-release tracks for his debut album Lawn which came out on November 8th, 2022.
His first release of 2023 was in April for the single “could’ve been” which was in collaboration with Tino Sutra and harper. Additionally, he released “Standards” in April which is one of our favourite songs from his discography so far.
On July 19th, 2023, he released the single “Cheapshot” which is his most popular song with over 790K streams on Spotify. This song also charted on Spotify curated playlists such as; indie pop & chill and Fresh Finds Canada Best of 2023. As well, “Cheapshot” earned a billboard in Times Square.
On July 26th, 2023, Seago released the song “out of place” with harper. Followed by that, on July 28th, Seago was featured on Chris LaRocca’s song “breakup coach” with Kyle Wildfern for Chris’ EP smile because it happened.
Seago’s last release of 2023 was on October 4th for the single “Silver Girl”. Seago also joined Chris LaRocca on his “i cried my eyes out” tour and opened for Chris in Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.
Hopefully in 2024, we can see Seago perform some more and maybe even release a new EP or album.
Listen to “Standards” by Seago on Spotify:
Check out Seago on Instagram: @seagoooooo
semmi is a Korean-American artist from Los Angeles, United States. He has not debuted yet, but we think once he debuts this year, he will be so big because he has so much potential. We first heard of semmi through BU-WAN of CLUB BOYBND who brought semmi out on stage for JUNNY’s “blanc” tour concert in San Diego in February 2023.
Since then, semmi has grown his own fanbase just by releasing demos of unreleased songs and also covers of his favourite songs. semmi also has a few original songs on SoundCloud which his fans really love.
semmi joined CLUB BOYBND for both their headline shows in Toronto and Los Angeles in August 2023. As well, semmi performed with CLUB BOYBND on December 6th at Beyond X in NYC.
In September 2023, semmi did a TikTok to The Rose’s open verse challenge for “Back To Me” and The Rose commented on it.
Hopefully in 2024, semmi debuts and we can watch him grow. As well, hopefully we can see him perform more.
Listen to semmi on SoundCloud:
Check out semmi on Instagram: @imsemmi
You can find all 24 artists mentioned in this article on our Spotify playlist below:
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