Tate McRae and the Kid Laroi's loved-up collab, and songs from 4 more Juno nominees you need to hear

CBC

26-03-2025

Songs you need to hear is CBC Music's weekly list of hot new Canadian tracks.
With the 2025 Juno Awards taking place in Vancouver this weekend, we decided to highlight new releases from this year's nominees.
How to watch the 2025 Juno Awards
Here are all the 2025 Juno nominees
I know love, Tate McRae feat. the Kid Laroi
Tate McRae's third album, So Close to What, was bolstered by the release of sultry singles 2 Hands, It's OK I'm OK and Sports Car, but the most recent single, I know love, shows off the Calgary pop star's softer side. Teaming up with her real-life boyfriend the Kid Laroi, McRae sings about the intoxicating swirl of emotions romance brings: "Yeah, I know love when it hits, when it feels like this/ it's a little like drugs," she sings on the chorus over booming, bass-heavy beats. On the second verse, the Kid Laroi sweetly acknowledges how the pair first connected before officially becoming a couple: "We started off friends, how we end up here?/ I don't know, but I don't see no problems," he sings, before reminiscing about falling for McRae during a night out in Mexico. Co-produced by Tyler Spry and Ryan Tedder — the mastermind who convinced McRae to release Greedy — the hook-y song is a step away from McRae's typical dance floor-ready bops, yet still has the pristine glossiness of her past hits. The cursive-style vocals and sticky, repetitive lyrics are a winning formula for McRae, with the "when it hits, when it hits" parts on loop. — Natalie Harmsen
Victorious, DJ Shub feat. Tia Wood
Been travelling down this road,
Seen some things that broke my soul.
It's over now, I hear the drum,
Getting closer so I know.
First-time solo Juno nominee Tia Wood lends her voice to Victorious, the electrifying first single off DJ Shub's upcoming album, Heritage (Part One). DJ Shub's powwow step blends the glitchy synths of dubstep with the reverberating drums of powwow music, and on Victorious, it's the drums that embolden Wood to overcome the soul-breaking hardships she's encountered on the road to triumph. The defiant anthem begins with a steady heartbeat before a crescendo of drums explodes, as her bright voice rings out: "I'll meet with songs of victory." Wood is up for contemporary Indigenous artist of the year at the 2025 Juno Awards. Before launching her solo career in 2023, she sang as part of the Juno-winning powwow group Northern Cree, which includes her father, Earl Wood. — Kelsey Adams
Keep my head down, Ekkstacy
Ekkstacy's upcoming third album, Forever (out May 16), will mark the Vancouver musician's first release recorded with a full band as he continues to build on his high-octane, post-punk sound. But the album also has some stripped-down moments of introspection, like the echoing melancholy of one day I'll wake up from this and its stunning closer, keep my head down. On the latter, Ekkstacy's voice isn't obscured by reverb, his thoughts ringing clear as he admits: "I've been pushed and pulled/ there's still so much that I don't see." These are sobering revelations from someone who wrote this album "sober-ish," according to a press release, after a bout of "partying really, really, really hard." There's still a lot to explore, discover and learn for Ekkstacy, who wants to keep his head down for now. Even though he's not one to embrace the language of optimism often, Ekkstacy will leave you with the knowledge that there's a bright horizon ahead. — Melody Lau
Inutuulunga, Taima
Before Elisapie became the Juno-winning, Polaris Prize-shortlisted solo artist we know today, she teamed up with Abitibi-born composer Alain Auger to create the duo Taima — resulting in their stunning, self-titled and only album. 2004's Taima would go on to win the artists a Juno Award, and to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, Elisapie and Auger recently released a remastered version, first sharing lead single Inutuulunga as the perfect time capsule with which to start. Sung in Inuktitut, it opens with Auger counting down in both English and French (the album is trilingual), a lighthearted start to a song about "wanting to be free, to take time alone, to breathe, and let go of the heaviness of an unhealthy relationship," as Elisapie explained via email. "It was a new world for me to find the city life coming from a small village," she said of her move to Montreal from her hometown of Salluit, Que. "Needing and wanting that space. The song is about demanding respect and setting boundaries to find peace again." You can hear the depths of Elisapie's voice in these early recordings — a sign of what was to come for the artist, who is up for two Juno Awards this year for her latest album, Inuktitut. — Holly Gordon
Wolf, Aqyila
Aqyila's Wolf is a message to anyone in a toxic relationship that it's time to move on. "I'm not falling like I did before," the Toronto R&B singer asserts over an uplifting, synth-driven beat –– one of her most pop forward-sounding songs to date. Wolf is a powerful anthem about self-respect and setting boundaries, about giving someone your trust and having them betray you, all while, ultimately, knowing deep down that it's OK to leave. "Don't pull me on your way down/ can't fool me anymore," she sings. Produced by Mike Sonier, who's worked with the likes of Julia Michaels, the Weeknd, Dua Lipa and more, Wolf showcases Aqyila's ever-broadening sonic palette, which is perhaps a taste of things to come on her upcoming album, Falling Into Place, out March 28. — Jesse Kinos-Goodin
Team (Lorde cover), Nemahsis
Nemahsis sings with a sweet, familiar tone that welcomes you into her world with ease and comfort. As a Muslim and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, based in Toronto, she often writes from a lyrical perspective that is relatable to anyone who has ever felt othered. In this stripped-down rendition of Lorde's hit 2013 song Team — a full version of the snippet the singer-songwriter posted to TikTok in 2023 that went viral — Nemahsis makes the cover her own with a slower tempo and swaps percussion for piano, choosing lyrics that help tell a Palestinian story with a music video set in the West Bank. The video editing perfectly aligns the lyrics with visuals about family bonds and community that prevails in, as she sings, "ruins of a palace within my dreams." The full version is currently available on Apple Music, and will be out everywhere else in May. — Tharsha Ravichakaravarthy