{"id":514296,"date":"2026-07-07T15:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514296\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:16:08","slug":"here-are-the-winners-of-the-2026-canadian-songwriters-hall-of-fame-breakthrough-songwriter-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514296\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are the winners of the 2026 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Breakthrough Songwriter Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Sept. 26, The Tragically Hip, Leslie Feist, Roch Voisine and Mike Reno and Paul Dean of Loverboy will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since 2017, the organization has also awarded emerging songwriters with the Breakthrough Songwriter Award, recognizing both French and non-French songwriters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto songwriter and producer Zale is the recipient of the non-French-language award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has worked across genres for many years, under the tutelage of boi-1da and Stephen Kozmeniuk, and helped pen songs for Kendrick Lamar, Eminem and Childish Gambino.<\/p>\n

Recently he\u2019s worked with fellow Canadians Nelly Furtado, the Beaches, Jessie Reyez and Goldie Boutilier.<\/p>\n

WATCH | The music video for Lesbian of the Year by the Beaches, which Zale helped write:<\/p>\n

Zale\u2019s fellow finalists included Eugene Tsai, Jade LeMac, Katie Tupper and Tia Wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic found me early, and songwriting has been the one constant through every chapter of my life. No matter how much the world or the industry changes, it’s still the place that makes the most sense to me,\u201d Zale said in a press release. \u201cI’m grateful to every artist, writer, and\u00a0collaborator who’s trusted me enough to walk into a room and make something from nothing together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Montreal by way-of Alma, Que., five-piece band Marie C\u00e9leste is the winner of the French-language award. The collective is made up of guitarist and vocalist Simon Duchesne, keyboardist and vocalist Philippe Plourde, bassist and vocalist Olivier Tremblay, guitarist Zachary Tremblay and drummer Guillaume Sliger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were up against Benjamin Nadeau, Benny Adam, Grande Eug\u00e8ne and Marco Ema.<\/p>\n

Marie C\u00e9leste blends world music, folk, jazz, indie pop and more genres, and the band released its critically acclaimed second album, Tout ce qui brille, in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | The music video for 2 go\u00e9lands by Marie C\u00e9leste:<\/p>\n

The band recently performed at the Francos de Montr\u00e9al festival and at sold-out headline shows across Quebec. Marie C\u00e9leste is going on a late-summer tour, leading into the fall and winter with dozens of tour dates across the province.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band shared in a press release that \u201cbeing recognized on a national scale with songs in French fills us with immense pride. We are committed to promoting Qu\u00e9bec culture across Canada, and this award is a huge pat on the back from the entire industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Zale and Marie C\u00e9leste will receive a $7,500 cash prize to help their career development, and will also receive global exposure and resources supplied by award sponsor TikTok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Previous winners of the Breakthrough Songwriter Award include Lowell, Mustafa, Charlotte Cardin, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Jessie Reyez, Nemahsis and Les Louanges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Sept. 26 at Massey Hall in Toronto. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-514296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}