8 MONTREAL ARTISTS YOU NEED ON YOUR PLAYLIST
BY BRENESSA ROACH | FEBRUARY 28 2023
Did you know that Montreal is actually the number 1 music city in Canada? Just like Europe, Montreal, Québec is full of arts and culture. Montreal is home to many talented musicians and also a place where festivals like Osheaga happens.
I actually listen to many artists from Montreal, which is why I will be sharing 8 artists from Montreal that you need on your playlist.
Ivytide is an indie pop band consisting of; Nathan Gagné (vocalist/guitarist), Jamie Snytte (guitarist) and Kyle Ruggiero (bassist). They started posting music to digital streaming platforms in August 2018 with their debut EP Bloom. I started listening to Ivytide in July 2022 after the release of their single “moving song”. From their whole discography, I really love the song “undone” which was released in May 2020 and I actually have featured the album cover on the homepage of our website. Overall, I really like their vibes and diversity of different sounds within the indie pop genre. Their last release of 2022 was in November with the song “overgrown”. Ivytide has a new song “floodlines” coming out this week on March 2!
Listen to “moving song” by Ivytide on Spotify:
Check out Ivytide Instagram: @ivytide
Claudia Bouvette was born in Bromont, Québec and is not currently based in Montreal. She is a pop singer-songwriter signed to Bonsound, a music company based in Montreal. She started posting music to digital streaming platforms in April 2019 with “Cool It”. Followed by that single, she released an EP in June 2019 titled Cool It which consists of 8 songs. In May 2022, Claudia released her first album titled The Paradise Club. This album has 14 songs and includes the song “1000 Bornes” which is the song I discovered her by. Currently, Claudia has around 26K monthly listeners but, all of her songs are below 1000 streams. On Friday, February 24, Claudia released her first single of 2023 titled “Highly Unrecommended”.
Listen to “1000 Bornes” by Claudia Bouvette on Spotify:
Check out Claudia Bouvette on Instagram: @claudiabouvette
Thomas Gauthier is a singer-songwriter and a YouTube content creator from Montreal. On his YouTube, he makes political videos and vlogs. He started posting music to streaming platforms in June 2018 with the release of his debut EP Compositions Comiques, Mais Un Peu Tristes Aussi. His most popular song “Content” is a collaboration song with Spider Zed and it has 1.7 million streams.
In September 2022, Thomas Gauthier released his album titled Mieux que rien. This album consists of 10 songs. His song “mieux que rien” is featured in Spotify’s curated playlist “Montréal Chill” – which is how I discovered him this year.
Listen to “mieux que rien” by Thomas Gauthier on Spotify:
Check out Thomas Gauthier on Instagram: @thomasgauthierinsta
Chloe Florence is an alternative-pop singer-songwriter. She currently has 1.3K monthly listeners and started releasing music in April 2020 with her debut single “Nightmare”. On November 13, 2020, she released her first EP titled Dreamer’s Nightmare. In September 2021, Chloe released another EP titled Ego Pleaser. The song “Ego Pleaser” on this EP is how I discovered her and I really like her vocal style with this particular song. Her latest release from November 2022 is a song titled “Synergy” and it’s a collaboration with another Montreal artist named Myles Lloyd.
Listen to “Ego Pleaser” by Chloe Florence on Spotify:
Check out Chloe Florence on Instagram: @chloeflorenceofficial
Maky Lavender is a bilingual rapper, singer and songwriter. He released his debut album Blowfoam 2 on September 24, 2017. Maky’s discography is insane because he has released so many songs, EPs and albums and it’s incredible to see his growth. I first listened to Maky in March 2022 when he released his single “Ce Soir 22”. I absolutely love this song because of the beat. I actually had the opportunity to see Maky perform at Canadian Music Week in June 2022 and he had a good stage presence and got the crowd cheering.
He actually released his new song “Why You Gotta Be Like That?” today so have a listen here.
Listen to “Ce Soir 22” by Maky Lavender on Spotify:
Check out Maky Lavender on Instagram: @makylavender
Avril Jensen is a pop singer who sings in French and English. She also mixes elements of trap music and acoustic instruments into her songs. She released her first song “Attends” to streaming platforms in October 2021. I discovered Avril through her March 2022 release “van gogh”. I really like the acoustic/indie-pop style of this song with her vocal style. Her latest release was on April 8, 2022 with her debut EP colours. Hopefully in 2023 we get some more music from her.
Listen to “van gogh” by Avril Jensen on Spotify:
Check out Avril Jensen on Instagram: @avpbril
Les Louanges is the project of Vincent Roberge, who is a singer-songwriter. Les Louanges is signed to Bonsound and currently has 88K monthly listeners. Les Louanges first single “Pitou” was released in February 2018. I started listening to Les Louanges because of the release of their album Crash which was released on January 21st, 2022. My favourite song on the album is “Chérie”. Additionally, Les Louanges released a single this month titled “Sur la mélodie” which is a collaboration song with Ichon.
Listen to “Chérie” by Les Louanges on Spotify:
Check out Les Louanges on Instagram: @lil_louanges
Zach Zoya is one of my favourite Montreal artists. His music style is a mixture of pop, R&B and soul. His music is so diverse because of his influences growing up with a South African father and a French-Canadian mother. Zach Zoya has around 300K monthly listeners which is a lot but he definitely needs even more recognition. He started posting music to digital streaming platforms in September 2017 with the song “Superficial”. My favourite song of his is “Understand” which came out in July 2021 and is the song that got me listening to him.
Listen to “Understand” by Zach Zoya on Spotify:
Check out Zach Zoya on Instagram: @zachzoya
You can find all 8 songs mentioned in this article on our Spotify playlist below:
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