Alexandra Stréliski
We could list a lot of impressive figures to showcase Alexandra Stréliski’s success: 600 million streams, 100,000 concert tickets sold, 10 Félix awards, 2 Polaris nominations, 1 Juno…
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But the recognition the celebrated Québécois pianist enjoys stems more from intangible elements: the evocative power of her ethereal compositions, always infused with infinite gentleness; the beauty of her arrangements, which never fail to strike straight at the heart. Known for his discerning musical taste, the late filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, with whom Stréliski had developed a close friendship, included several of her melodies in his projects, from the series Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects to the films Dallas Buyers Club and Demolition, each time sparking strong emotions.
Beyond her creative work, Alexandra Stréliski also moves people through her sensitive, human, and humorous approach to life.
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Though she currently describes herself as being in a “fallow period,” this well-earned break after two whirlwind years of touring will likely give rise to a new, rich, and promising creative cycle.
Alicia Moffet
Alicia Moffet’s highly publicized journey might give the illusion that we already know her.
She’s grown up in front of us for more than a decade, from her YouTube beginnings and appearances on shows like La Voix and Canada’s Next Star, to her influencer career and role as host on Occupation Double. But her latest album, No, I’m Not Crying, reminds us there’s still much to discover when it comes to her music.
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With this third record, and her first on Cult Nation (Charlotte Cardin, Lubalin), the singer-songwriter leans into raw honesty and a clearly defined sonic direction.
Where her previous efforts, Billie Ave. and Intertwine, explored different balances between R&B and introspection, No, I’m Not Crying consolidates Moffet’s sound, blending emotional alt-rock with accessible yet uncompromising pop. The track Choke, which went viral in the spring, captures this approach: instantly catchy, with sharp lyrics and a powerful contrast between the vulnerability in her voice and the roaring guitars.
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Fredz
He looks the part, some might say. Round glasses, bowl cut, soft voice — Fredz looks more like a teacher’s pet than a massively popular rapper.
But behind that discreet appearance lies one of the most distinctive voices in Québec’s emerging scene.
Originally from Longueuil, Frédéric Carrier wrote his first lyrics as a teenager, learned guitar through YouTube, and built a hybrid universe where cloud pop meets melancholic rap, framed by lyrics that resonate strongly with Gen Z.
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His latest album, Demain il fera beau, confirms his status as a unique singer-songwriter. While he shares some traits with introspective rap traditions, Fredz stands out for the way he draws listeners into his world. With a sober but polished aesthetic, he constructs a cohesive universe where each track has its own mood. On stage, he draws a devoted, multigenerational audience on both sides of the Atlantic.In a music landscape filled with clichés and hype, Fredz opts for nuance, softness, and attention to detail. A different way to approach rap: grounded in the real world, and bound to inspire many more in the years to come.
Laraw
With a pop sound that swings from soft to punchy, Laraw defies expectations.
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A Montréal-based artist of Moroccan and Lebanese descent, she’s been making her mark on the local scene for several years now. Her online presence, radio play, and festival appearances have only grown since the release of Quarter Life Crisis in 2024. But behind the image of an accessible pop singer lies a songwriter with a dense and nuanced world, constantly reinventing herself with every release.
Her latest track, Milk and Sugar, reinforces that impression. A bittersweet song about the early days of rekindled love, it features simple yet incisive lyrics, carried by an airy production co-signed by Tim Buron. This return to English after the EP J’ai quitté le Heartbreak Club confirms Laraw’s versatility, equally at ease with the codes of francophone songwriting and global alt-pop.
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In a Québec music landscape increasingly open to atypical and ambitious projects, Laraw represents a new generation capable of speaking to multiple audiences at once. She stands out for her consistent creative vision, unapologetic vulnerability, and her ability to turn doubt into infectious hooks.
High Klassified
At first glance, High Klassified might seem to exist outside the local scene.
A Laval-born beatmaker who came up through Fool’s Gold Records, he’s produced for artists like Future, The Weeknd, Hamza, and Damso, before circling back to lay the foundations of a more personal project. But behind the international aura, Kevin Vincent remains a creator deeply rooted in his suburban home turf, which he both celebrates and transforms in his own way.
With Ravaru, his latest album, he takes on a challenge few producers dare attempt: building a cohesive narrative universe where futuristic textures, R&B melodies, vaporous funk, and Japanese animation influences coexist. Ravaru is “Laval” pronounced with a Japanese accent: a way to reimagine his hometown like a video game, unlocking hidden treasures, shifting between light and darkness.
Rather than capitalize on his star-studded résumé, High Klassified chooses to double down on vision. He invites guests like Zach Zoya, Hubert Lenoir, Ateyaba, and Tsew the Kid — not to rack up features, but to serve a coherent, globally-minded body of work that remains true to himself.
Image via Loto-Québec
Nathan Brown*
Sheeran performs onstage last year in Newark, New Jersey.
More Pop Stars Should Call Ed Sheeran to Write Their Songs
It has been two years since the Netflix series Pop Star Academy brought Katseye together, and the girl group still hasn’t had a truly universal hit. They’ve had popular songs, sure. There’s the smooth, Latin-pop-inspired “Gabriela,” which peaked at Number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, and of course “Gnarly,” the skittering viral track about fried chicken, Takis, and Teslas. “Internet Girl” seemed promising when Katseye premiered it on tour, but the studio recording that arrived at the top of the year features some bizarre vocal choices that unravel the track. “Pinky Up” barely cut through the discourse about their future as a group after HYBE and Geffen announced member Manon Bannerman would embark on an indefinite hiatus.
Katseye have been downplaying their full potential, and their years of training, with each release. A likely pop figure might be the key to getting them back on track. Their latest single, “Animal,” penned by Ed Sheeran alongside Johnny McDaid and producers Omer Fedi and Blake Slatkin, is one of their best. It’s not an incredibly ambitious song, but it’s catchy and spirited enough to not come across as predictable — and it gives them a real shot at longevity in the pop arena. Sheeran knows how to write a pop hit that sticks, even when it’s not for himself. In fact, more pop stars should call him to write their songs.
“Nobody knows you’re outta control/But I see a side behind the closed doors,” the girls sing on the chorus from “Animal,” trading off on the role throughout the song. “They get a glimpse here on the dance floor/You move like an animal.” It’s classic boots-on-the-ground reporting from the dance floor, a pretty hard trope to mess up in pop. Lara gets the best one-liner on the song, with the pre-chorus: “Your body gets twisted and tangled in mine/Love so good, how could this be free?/I keep your secret safe with me.”
For a minute, “Animal” sounds like it could have been ripped from one of Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox-era hard drives. But when the chorus kicks in over plucky acoustic guitars, any number of Sheeran singles spring to mind: “Sing,” “Azizam,” “I Don’t Care.” In an Instagram post, Sheeran revealed he got in touch with Katseye after hearing “Gnarly” for the first time. “I was in Mexico and loved it,” he wrote. “Said I was a fan and reached out to them to see if I could write them a song.” On Katseye’s “Countdown to Animal” livestream, hosted on the evening of the song’s release, Lara teased, “A very special person wrote it, which is also really cool.”
Asked about the difference between “Pinky Up” and “Animal,” the group members quickly pointed out that they’re actually (and finally) singing on this one, and it’s geared toward more widespread consumption. “‘Pinky Up’ is more like a rave in the club,” Daniela said. “But ‘Animal’ is more like you’ll listen to it at the grocery store, in the car on the radio, or you’ll hear it at the mall just walking around.” It’s just what Katseye needs, and it proves their ambitions as a group extend beyond brand deals and dance breaks.
Not a particularly polarizing artist, Sheeran was the logical songwriter to turn to. He’s still selling out stadiums over a decade into his career, even after wedding ballads like “Thinking Out Loud” and “Perfect” pushed many to write him off as corny. More flashy swings, like “Shape of You” and “Shivers,” have eclipsed the acoustic singer-songwriter craftsmanship of his first two albums. And yet, it’s their success that has allowed him to sustain a career of this magnitude for so long. He’s worked this magic for other artists, too.
When Justin Bieber returned with Purpose in 2015, he released “Sorry” and “Love Yourself” just over two weeks apart. “Sorry” served as the big party hit, a Skrillex and BloodPop production with Julia Michaels in the credits. Bieber had already racked up a few like that by this point in his career, including “Beauty and a Beat.” But stripped down to just his vocals and a guitar, “Love Yourself” added new dimension to Bieber’s position in pop. Sheeran originally wrote the song for his album Divide. “Going from a song that would have never been released to the biggest song of last year,” he said in 2017, “it just shows you that you shouldn’t always write stuff off.”
It isn’t rare for Sheeran to think of other artists while in sessions. “Every single album that I’ve ever done, I’ve always gone, on the side, ‘Let’s try and write a song that we can pitch to Rihanna,’” he said last year. While he hasn’t landed a hit with her, his songs have ended up on albums from One Direction (the acoustic ballad “Little Things,” written by Sheeran, followed up the bubbly “Live While We’re Young” in 2012) and Shawn Mendes. Sheeran gifted Mendes the hook for what would become “Fallin’ All in You” from 2018’s Shawn Mendes. The snap and sway, first-dance-ready ballad remains one of Mendes’ highlights.
In a perfect alternate universe, Sheeran would have sent him “Bad Habits,” too, instead of keeping the hit for himself. The upbeat record would have marked a much needed return to form for Mendes, one of pop’s most consistent hitmakers until he started down the confessional singer-songwriter route. Coming from Sheeran, who doesn’t play the main pop-boy role as efficiently — he’ll always prefer an acoustic guitar, at the end of the day — it did little to restore the balance in a post-pandemic pop ecosystem dominated by bedroom pop and quarantine hits crafted for TikTok.
Pop has been in a peculiar place for a little while now. Newer acts are breaking through with slow-burning hits, but are also struggling to maintain that success over time. Meanwhile, more veteran artists are scoring late-career breakthroughs, or leaning heavily into diaristic releases that trade off on their personal narrative. Some artists are enlisting fewer collaborators — preferring to write in tight-knit camps with friends — and taking the songwriting lead themselves more often, like Ariana Grande’s solo effort on “Hate That I Made You Love Me.” Still, sometimes great performers aren’t great songwriters. That’s OK. Balance restoration comes through remembering collaboration and timing are key.
Before “Gabriela” ended up with Katseye, it had been recorded by both Little Mix and Anitta. The song earned them a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards. Way back in 2018, Little Mix launched their fifth album, LM5, with “Woman Like Me,” co-written by Sheeran and Jess Glynne, who began the song for her own album, Always in Between, before passing it along. When the group hit pause to pursue solo projects, Sheeran appeared in the credits for Perrie Edwards’ debut single, “Forget About Us.” The track was criticized for being too impersonal, the kind of song anyone could sing. Sometimes that’s the point. At least it’s catchy and she’s actually singing.
Between HYBE and Geffen, Katseye have too many resources at their disposal to add duds to their discography. In about two weeks, the girl group will release its third EP, Wild, featuring both “Pinky Up” and “Animal.” The EP release model has allowed Katseye to hedge the debut album conversation for a while, but the day will come eventually. When it does, it wouldn’t hurt to see what else someone like Sheeran might have up their sleeve. It could be another hit.