10 songs with surprising Canadian connections
Some of the biggest hits in the world, spanning genres such as hip-hop, rock, pop, dance and country, have been shaped by Canadian musicians in some way. Whether it's the production, mixing, engineering, sampling or the songwriting, a number of tunes by some of music's biggest names have unexpected Canadian ties.
To celebrate Canada Day, we're looking back on songs by Sabrina Carpenter, Bonnie Raitt, Kendrick Lamar and more to shine the spotlight on the Canadians behind the hits.
1. Anybody Seen My Baby?, The Rolling Stones
When Keith Richards penned the Rolling Stones' 1997 song Anybody Seen My Baby?, the chorus sounded very similar to a Grammy-winning 1992 Canadian song: Constant Craving by country star k.d. lang. "My daughter Angela and her friend were at Redlands, and I was playing the record, and they start singing this totally different song over it. They were hearing k.d. lang's Constant Craving," Richards explained in his biography. "It was Angela and her friend that copped it."
Lang and her co-writer, Ben Mink, were later given writing credits, and on BBC's Something For the Weekend, lang explained, "I got a phone call from my lawyer saying, 'Would you like 25 per cent of the Rolling Stones' new single, for the publishing? And I said, 'Yes! Sure!' It's like I won the lottery."
2. Cheers (Drink to That), Rihanna
Rihanna's bold party anthem, Cheers (Drink to That), was released in 2010 and samples Canadian pop royalty, Avril Lavigne. Lavigne's 2002 hit I'm With You is sampled on the chorus, using Lavigne's "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahs." Rihanna had originally wanted Lavigne to sing on the song, but her producers had already finished it. However, according to MTV she was happy Lavigne's vocals were still used for the track: "I'm just glad that we could use her sample, because it became such a huge part of the instrumental that if it were not in the song, it would change the whole vibe of it," she said.
Lavigne also weighed in on being sampled, telling Entertainment Weekly, "It was really exciting because I'm With You is one of my favourite songs that I've done, I always love performing it. And I think Rihanna's awesome, she has great songs, she's a really great singer, so yeah I was excited."
In the Cheers (Drink to That) music video above, Lavigne makes a cameo around 1:07 when she is pushed into a swimming pool.
3. Butter, BTS
BTS's pandemic hit, Butter, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the dance-pop track was co-written by Calgary songwriter Jenna Andrews, who has penned songs for Drake, Sabrina Carpenter, Jennifer Lopez, Benee and more. When Andrews was working on the song, she played it for Columbia executive Ron Perry, who told her: "I want it to be something like Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson." That phrase clicked, and the song's hook was born: "Then, I don't know why, and this happens a lot as a songwriter, it just sort of popped into my head. It made me think, 'Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover,' and I sang that lyric and melody and we were like, 'Oh, this is it'," Andrews told Forbes.
4. Shutdown, Skepta
British rapper Skepta's 2015 song Shutdown is a boisterous grime track about sitting front row at fashion week, selling out Wembley Stadium and more. The track received a Canadian touch on the intro and outro, thanks to a sample featuring a familiar voice: fans can hear a clip of Drake saying, "Man's never been in Marquee when it's shutdown, eh? Truss mi, daddy," at the beginning, and the audio is from a Vine the Toronto rapper made in 2014.
During the track's closing, Skepta samples Drake's short film, Jungle around the 13:22 mark where Drake says, "Link up, daddy, alright, yo, tomorrow I'm gonna come scoop you, eh? We'll go to Biz's." Then in 2015, at Wireless Festival in London, Drake brought out Skepta to perform the song live with him.
5. Please, Please, Please, Sabrina Carpenter
Recording engineer Serban Ghenea mixed Sabrina Carpenter's 2024 hit Please, Please, Please, which appeared on her Grammy-winning album Short n' Sweet. He also worked on five other tracks on the album including Taste and Bed Chem. Ghenea has mixed other projects for Carpenter including her 2016 album Evolution and her 2019 album Singular Act II.
Aside from his work with Carpenter, Ghenea's credits include albums and songs by Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and more, and he has 21 Grammys to his name.
6. The Blacker the Berry, Kendrick Lamar
The second single from Kendrick Lamar's critically-acclaimed 2015 album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was produced by a trio including two Canadians: Toronto's Boi-1da, Whitehorse's Koz and Terrace Martin. Koz presented a rough version of the song to Boi-1da, who added in breakbeat drums over the guitar melody. The result gives the song its boom-bap energy. "Being a part of To Pimp a Butterfly was another dream come true. Kendrick's one of my favourite artists. It was a pleasure working with him…I was just happy to make a very impactful record with him," Boi-1da told DJ Booth in a 2018 interview.
And there's another, lesser-known Canadian connection to The Blacker the Berry: Boi-1da was looking to add an " aggressive hip-hop idea" to the track and reached out to Kardinal Offishall for suggestions. He came back with Assassin, whose eviscerating patois snarling gives the song's chorus its propulsive edge.
7. One Kiss, Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa
Calvin Harris's collab with Dua Lipa was a certified song of the summer in 2018, and gave Lipa the second No. 1 single of her career. The lively dance-pop song was penned by Toronto R&B singer Jessie Reyez, so we have her to thank for the infinitely earwormy chorus: "One kiss is all it takes/ Falling in love with me/ Possibilities, I look like all you need." The song went No. 1 on charts across the world, in more than 20 countries including the. U.K., the U.S., Lebanon, Mexico, Croatia, Germany, Ecuador, Australia and many more. Reyez told the Fader that it felt "surreal" to have written such a colossal summer hit.
Harris had been in touch with Reyez since the release of her debut single Figures in 2016, and invited her to Los Angeles for a songwriting session that turned into a weeklong extravaganza, where One Kiss and other songs were written. Reyez has worked with the Scottish producer a handful of times, writing Promises featuring Sam Smith, Potion featuring Lipa and Young Thug, Faking It featuring Kehlani and Lil Yachty and Hard to Love.
8. Made Up Mind, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt's Grammy-winning song Made Up Mind is actually a cover of a 2013 track by Winnipeg duo the Bros. Landreth. The brothers first met Raitt in 2014, at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. They were already buzzing at the prospect of being on the same lineup as the blues and country great and then she invited them to her green room after their set where they spoke for hours. Raitt liked what she heard from them so much that she asked if they could send over any songs they thought may be a good fit for her.
Fast forward to 2021 and the Bros. Landreth found out she wanted to cover Made Up Mind for her 2022 album Just Like That. During Raitt's 2023 Grammys acceptance speech for best Americana performance she shouted them out: "I wanna thank the Bros. Landreth for writing this kick-ass song." In an interview with CBC Manitoba's Information Radio, Dave Landreth told host Pat Kaniuga that: "It's just the best, best news ever, we're so happy. The entire journey of this song has been utterly mind boggling and so surreal and so wonderful."
9. End of the World, Miley Cyrus
The lead single from Miley Cyrus's new album Something Beautiful is a disco-pop burner about the end of times. It's a far cry from the heady shoegaze we're accustomed to hearing from the Toronto by way of P.E.I. band Alvvays, which is why it was an unexpected surprise to see its lead singer (Molly Rankin) and guitarist (Alec O'Hanley) on the songwriting and production credits for End of the World. The song was co-produced by Albertan superproducer Shawn Everett, who also produced Alvvays's 2022 album, Blue Rev.
10. Mad Love, Sean Paul and David Guetta feat. Becky G
Fusion records were all the rage during the tail end of the 2010s — think Luis Fonsi's Despacito remix featuring Justin Bieber or the reggae version of Ed Sheeran's I Don't Care featuring Chronixx, Koffee and again, Bieber. 2018'S Mad Love was one of many pop radio offerings that had a taste of island flair, and Sean Paul's signature partystarter energy mixed with David Guetta's penchant for big dance breaks and Becky G's irresistibly hooky "Love me, love me like that" were a recipe for success. The now-platinum single was produced by a large team, including Montreal duo Banx and Ranx. Their first time working with the Jamaican superstar was on his 2016 single Crick Neck, and they have since produced nine different songs for him. Ghenea (who mixed Please, Please, Please) was also responsible for mixing this juggernaut hit.
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