When Boi-1da was first approached about a World Cup soundtrack by Canada Soccer, the brief was simple: a few songs to accompany the 2026 FIFA tournament.<\/p>\n
He quickly pushed for something much bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just too much talent out here to just showcase one, two, three artists,\u201d says the Grammy-winning Toronto producer behind some of Drake\u2019s biggest hits.<\/p>\n
Beyond scale, there was another idea driving him: competition.<\/p>\n
With other nations releasing their own World Cup anthems, Boi-1da saw an opportunity to show that Canada could go toe-to-toe with anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make songs that compete with other countries that are making songs too, just to show them that Canada\u2019s the best,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the biggest artists in the world. We have the best artists ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
That mindset informed \u201cWhat If It All Goes Right?\u201d \u2014 an all-Canadian, genre-spanning album featuring pop icon Nelly Furtado, rock vets the Tragically Hip and a stacked roster of established and emerging talent, including Alessia Cara, Jessie Reyez and NorthSideBenji.<\/p>\n
Out Friday, the album is ostensibly meant to rally Team Canada as it prepares for its first-ever World Cup match on home soil on June 12. <\/p>\n
But Boi-1da also sees it as something of a statement about Canada\u2019s diversity and its place in the global cultural conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt represents who we are, Canada, as people. We\u2019re a bunch of different cultures who all mesh into each other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Take \u201cBorn Winner,\u201d for instance \u2014 a propulsive Afrobeats anthem featuring French vocals from Ottawa-based artist Joe Gez and Edmonton R&B singer Frvrfriday, as well as Punjabi verses from B.C. singer-rapper AP Dhillon.<\/p>\n
That cross-cultural collaboration is all over the album, and feels especially resonant after recent debate over Toronto\u2019s \u2014 and by extension, Canada\u2019s \u2014 sonic identity. <\/p>\n
During Drake\u2019s high-profile feud with Kendrick Lamar in 2024, U.S. radio personality Ebro Darden made headlines after suggesting Toronto lacks a distinct regional sound compared with cities like Atlanta or Compton.<\/p>\n
Boi-1da rejects that framing outright.<\/p>\n
\u201cNonsense,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
He argues outsiders often misunderstand how deeply integrated different cultures and sounds are in Canadian life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came up with Drake and hearing people say (he\u2019s a) culture vulture, they don\u2019t understand Toronto and Canada and how diverse it is,\u201d says Boi-1da, who produced two songs on the rapper\u2019s new album \u201cIceman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go to a party in Canada and you can hear seven different genres of music and everybody knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s Africans, there\u2019s Italians, there\u2019s Indians, there\u2019re West Indians, there\u2019s everything here, and we listen to everything. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re so tapped in,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
The album features several artists who have helped shape Canadian music \u2014 Boi-1da says Furtado is someone he grew up dreaming of collaborating with. The singer\u2019s track \u201cElectric Circus\u201d is her first single since announcing she was stepping away from performing last fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Nelly Furtado, man. She can never be done,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s just one of those artists that, whenever she feels like it, she can just snap right back in. It\u2019s embedded in her.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the synth-heavy electronica number has a \u201cgritty, underground, \u201990s feel\u201d and that they watched old clips of the iconic MuchMusic live dance show \u201cElectric Circus\u201d while working on it.<\/p>\n
That Cancon nostalgia runs throughout the project \u2014 \u201cSucks to Be You,\u201d featuring Toronto-born alt-pop artist Sophie Powers, interpolates the hook from Canadian pop duo Prozz\u00e4k\u2019s 1998 hit of the same name.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up listening to that song \u2014 that was a song that was just stuck in your head,\u201d says Boi-1da, noting Prozz\u00e4k approved his nod to their tune and that \u201cthey loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boi-1da says the Tragically Hip also gave him free rein over their catalogue to remake one of their songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sent me the original tracks, vocals, instruments and everything,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to take my time with it. I had to make sure I made the most tasteful thing I could make because the Hip, they really mean something to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boi-1da wound up reimagining \u201cAhead by a Century\u201d as a haunting, slow-burning ballad, with City and Colour\u2019s Dallas Green and M\u00e9tis singer-songwriter Ruby Waters wistfully harmonizing on it.<\/p>\n
He notes Green felt like a significant choice since he collaborated with the Hip\u2019s late frontman Gord Downie \u2014 on City and Colour\u2019s 2008 hit \u201cSleeping Sickness\u201d \u2014 while Waters represented the next generation of Canadian talent.<\/p>\n
The album is being presented via Perfect Pitch, Canada Soccer\u2019s national music ambassador program, with proceeds going to its foundation benefiting youth soccer programs.<\/p>\n
A self-described \u201csoccer dad\u201d \u2014 his daughter is a striker in the Ontario Provincial Development League \u2013 Boi-1da says he\u2019s particularly invested in the sport.<\/p>\n
But he says the music and sports are ultimately just pieces of a broader surge of national momentum. <\/p>\n
\u201cCanada is up, up, up right now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cShai Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA\u2019s back-to-back MVP. We\u2019ve got \u2018Iceman\u2019 out. We\u2019ve got the World Cup in Canada,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur boys are going to go do some damage out there. I can feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Boi-1da was first approached about a World Cup soundtrack by Canada Soccer, the brief was simple: a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,49,48,75,341,44,82],"class_list":["post-714330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}