Billboard Canada has announced some more major global names for Billboard Canada Women In Music, where Cardi B will accept the Global Woman of the Year Award.
Summer Walker will accept the Global Visionary Award. Walker has broken barriers to build a modern global R&B success story based on boundless creativity and radical vulnerability. This year, Walker transformed her now-complete Over It trilogy into her first arena tour, the Finally Still Over It tour, which sold out venues around the world. The tour told the tale of her three albums, kicking off in Toronto and culminating with a special finale in the U.K., with two sold-out nights at London’s O2 Arena.
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Celebrating the feat in a special moment captured by Billboard Canada and Billboard UK, Walker paid tribute to the bold and loyal team that has helped her achieve new heights as she has built her own path within the industry.
Bebe Rexha will be honoured with the Global Hitmaker Award, which recognizes her decade-spanning career and illustrious path from songwriter to one of the most versatile charting stars on the music landscape. From pop to electronic, country and R&B, she has shown an ability to craft songs that resonate with massive audiences including multiple No. 1s in Canada and the U.S.
Now in 2026, the singer has taken greater creative control of her career, going independent and partnering with EMPIRE, a decision she describes as not just a business one, but a personal one, “embracing every part” of herself. Her 2026 album Dirty Blonde hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance Albums chart and reflects Bebe’s newly heightened creative ambition, which includes making music videos for every song on the album.
Chxrry will accept the 2026 Billboard Canada Rising Star Award.
It has been four years since the Scarborough-born, Los Angeles-based act (formerly Chxrry22) made history as the first female artist signed to The Weeknd’s XO record label. Chxrry has continued to build her audience, playing both intimate and stadium-sized concerts during her opening stint on The Weeknd’s record-breaking After Hours Til Dawn tour. This year, she played 16 sold-out shows across the globe, including two stops in Toronto.
The celebration will be hosted by Leandra Earl and Kylie Miller of The Beaches, the breakthrough Toronto band that was recognized as last year’s Women of the Year.
The band celebrated the major breakthrough that began in 2023 with “Blame Brett” and continued through their 2025 album No Hard Feelings and their graduation to an arena-level band. They have remained true to themselves and proudly worn their home country on their sleeve, all while continuing to build an impact that transcends beyond it.
In addition to being major honourees last year, they were undoubtedly the life of the party, celebrating with the other honourees and creating a viral moment as they shared their surprise while congratulations played from Elton John, Kid Cudi, Charlotte Cardin and more. Following the Women of the Year honour, they also became the first group to receive the Global Force Award at Billboard Women In Music in Los Angeles. They described the win, which recognizes their representation of Canada on the world stage, as a “dream come true.”
Kylie and Leandra’s charm has also breathed new life into their breakthrough hit “Blame Brett” as the guitarists lead a viral stage move that has become a viral staple during the band’s live sets. From Rebecca Black and the Off Campus cast, to their own parents, the “Blame Brett hops” have become a fan-favourite moment and taken over stages of all sizes, from festivals like All Things Go to the arenas where The Beaches opened for Louis Tomlinson this spring.
Read more here. — Billboard Canada
Drake Finances New Album From Canadian Rapper k-os
The return of Canadian hip-hop veteran k-os is imminent — and it’s fuelled by one of the country’s biggest global stars.
BLackneck will release on Oct. 30. It’s the genre-blurring Canadian rapper’s first full album in over a decade, and it has a major credit: Drake.
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The new seven-track LP finds k-os reconnecting with the influence he’s left behind — the ambition of a Canadian artist willing to think beyond the country’s borders while also representing where he came from — and it took one of its biggest benefactors to bring it to life.
Drake is credited as an executive producer on the project. Though he wasn’t behind the boards, the Toronto star bankrolled the whole project while offering encouragement to k-os to make the album only he could make.
“Drake was like, ‘please make me a k-os record, please, please, please.’ That’s all he wanted,” k-os tells Billboard Canada over the phone from Mayne Island in B.C., where he’s putting the finishing touches on the mix for the album.
By a ‘k-os record,’ he means an album that takes big swings and doesn’t pigeonhole itself to one genre or perspective — a vision that inspired a young Aubrey Graham as he was building his Drake persona.
He grew up watching k-os on Canadian music video channel MuchMusic in the 2000s, when k-os was making his name as a major name in Canadian hip-hop. They collaborated on the songs “Faith” part one and two in the early 2010s, and remained friendly ever since. They first reconnected, k-os says, in 2021 or 2022 when they saw each other at a club. They re-exchanged phone numbers and Drake asked him to send him some music.
“He was like ‘dude, clearly you’re still good at this,’” k-os remembers. “‘I want to put you into a situation where you can make some music.’”
Drake spoke to Matte Babel, the former MuchMusic VJ who now works closely with Drake as the chief brand officer of his entertainment company, DreamCrew.
Babel has been managing the project with k-os, with Drake as the “chief financier,” says k-os.
“He’s like ‘oh, he wants to go to this big studio? He wants to get this string section?’ It’s hard for a label to spend that on an artist these days,” says k-os, who was formerly signed to major label Universal Music Canada and indie label Dine Alone. “If you’re a new artist and you just get signed off of streams, you tell them you want the Vancouver String Orchestra, they’re going to say ‘we’re not paying for it.’”
But Drake is able to pay for it, bringing him back to a musical situation he was in when he was a major label artist in a pre-streaming world.
Read more here. — Richard Trapunski
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Criticizes Tate McRae’s Victoria’s Secret Performance: ‘Nothing Empowering Here’
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is criticizing Tate McRae’s debut performance of “Housewife.”
The Calgary-born pop sensation took the stage at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show on Sunday night (Oct. 18) to perform her new single “Housewife” live for the first time, along with her hit singles “Sports Car” and “Dear God,” wearing a sleek red lingerie ensemble that drew criticism from the author and mental health advocate formerly married to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
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Under Billboard Canada‘s Instagram post of the performance, Grégoire Trudeau writes, “Really? This is what we need to do now to make a mark as an artist? I like her music and she’s talented but I see nothing empowering here; more like falling into the mold of people pleasing.”
Ahead of its release, McRae described her song to Jimmy Fallon as an empowerment anthem, one that’s “kind of about a woman who can’t be contained.” The Canadian pop star has explained the song is about wanting to be her own provider, to be rich, successful and her own housewife. “I just wanna make a lot of money/ be my own housewife/ You could be the one I’m calling honey/ Be my sex on the side,” she sings over the song’s mellow, 2000s-inspired production.
The viral hit is already breaking career records for the Canadian artist, having earned McRae’s largest streaming debut to date with 5.67 million streams in one day and landing at No. 1 on the Global Spotify chart. Her previous record was held by “Tit for Tat,” which garnered 4.31 million streams in a day and landed at No. 3 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, becoming her second-highest-charting solo hit in Canada. “Housewife” is McRae’s first new single of the year and her first since releasing her Canadian and U.S. No. 1 album So Close to What and its deluxe edition in 2025.
McRae’s performance has been the talk of the internet, with many fans raving over her catwalk strut to “Sports Car,” as well as the brief moment she shared with Gigi Hadid while performing “Housewife.”
Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh
