Hey ONTD, I’m back, back, back… back again with another ten songs you can listen to on Canada Day July 1st (or whenever this goes out)!
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST – currently 30+ hours long!
TIA WOOD
Tia Wood is a Cree and Salish pop singer-songwriter. She blends traditional elements of her people’s music with pop, R&B, and soul influences. She said she felt pursing music full time was unreachable for her as she didn’t have many Indigenous female singers in the mainstream too look up too. But after she started posting videos of her music on TikTok she realized that ths was something people wanted. Earlier this year, Tia was nominated for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year at the Juno Awards (Canadian Grammys).
CELEIGH CARDINAL
Celeigh Cardinal is Métis folk singer. She says she knew she wanted to be a singer from the time she was four years old. To her music is a tapestry of sound and emotion. Celeigh has been nominated and won multiple awards and has toured over the world.
ELSAPIE
Elsapie is from Salluit, a small village in Nunavik. Her music blends folk, pop, and electronic elements, often sung in English, French, and Inuktitut. She released a cover album reimagining pop and rock classics in her native language. She also did a Tiny Desk concert that you can watch here.
JOEL WOOD
Joel Wood creates traditional music that is a powerful blend of soulful melodies and heartfelt lyrics. His music is deeply connected to his Cree heritage and has Cree round dance and powwow elements. Joel’s music is also in the Cree language in an effort to preserve it. He won the Juno Award for Traditional Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year in 2024.
LOGAN STAATS
TW: The above video contains real footage of protesters being abused, dragged, choked and arrested by the police/RCMP as well as homes and property being destroyed.
Logan Staats is a Mohawk singer-songwriter, who first rose to fame in 2018 when he won CTV’s The Launch. After that win and touring Logan felt a need to reconnect with his Indigenous heritage. He creates music that is inspired by the musical legacy of Six Nations, particularly its blues and rock traditions. Many of his songs are protest songs about issues the Indigenous Peoples in Canada face.
ZOON
Zoon is the musical alias of Anishinaabe musician Daniel Monkman. They identify as Two Spirit. Their music is an exploration of issues facing Indigenous peoples and they music music in an effort to reclaim Indigenous languages.
RUBY WATERS
Ruby Waters is a Métis singer-songwriter from Ontario. She makes contemporary music that sometimes takes inspiration from her heritage. Her unique voice has been compared to Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse. She likes to make music to tell stories from the perspectives of those who have it worse than most. Ruby uses her platform to advocate for Indigenous issues in Canada and even donates part of her merch sales to Indigenous organizations.
DEANTHA EDMUNDS
Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer. She blends classic music with Inuktut text and Inuit themes. This year she became the first Indigenous artist to win Classical Composition of the Year at the Juno Awards. In 2022 she sang “Sons of Labrador,” the anthem of Nunatsiavut, the ancestral homeland of the Labrador Inuit to King (then Prince) Charles and Camilla during the royal visit.
AYSANABEE
Aysanabee was born Evan Pang, with a non-inherited surname his mother chose in an attempt to protect him from anti-Indigenous racism by portraying him to the community as Asian instead of Indigenous. He reclaimed his grandfather’s surname, Aysanabee, as an adult which he now performs under. He made history as the first Indigenous artist to win the JUNO for Alternative Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. He is an Oji-Cree multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter and self taught artist.
THE HALLUCI NATION
They’ve been on this list before and will probably be on it again (for good reason), The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red) are a musical duo that combine electronic, dance, dubstep and hiphop with traditional Indigenous music. Made up of Tim “2oolman” Hill and Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas. Earlier this year they released an EP that features Bret “The Hitman” Hart (yes, that Bret Hart) called Path of the Babyface. This year they became the first Independent Indigenous Artists from North America to reach 100+ Million streams on Spotify.
did i come back to ontd after being gone for months just to post this? yuuup (i know, who are you? idk either). apologies if this is rushed, i haven’t been feeling myself the past little bit and scrambled a bit making this but couldn’t let the day go without doing this. i will be doing the big update my indigenous playlist over the next week 🧡
