Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, Georges St-Pierre join ensemble cast for Crave TV comedy

TORONTO - Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger and mixed martial arts star Georges St-Pierre are among the stars of Jared Keeso's upcoming TV comedy.

Crave says the "Rockstar" singer and former UFC champion are part of an ensemble for "I Kill the Bear," a six-part half-hour series about a family that wrangles bears for film productions.  

Keeso created, writes and stars alongside a stacked cast that includes his old "19-2" co-star Adrian Holmes, Kristin Kreuk of "Smallville" fame, and Jonathan Torrens of "Mr. D" and "Trailer Park Boys."

Keeso, who also spearheaded Crave hits "Letterkenny" and "Shoresy," also enlists actors from those projects including Eliana Jones, Frederick Roy, and Dylan Playfair.

Chantal Kreviazuk reimagines songs she wrote for Drake and others with upcoming album

TORONTO - Chantal Kreviazuk is putting her own spin on the hits she made with pop and hip-hop superstars.

The Winnipeg-born singer-songwriter is mapping out plans for a new album that will feature her performing stripped-back versions of songs she co-wrote over the years with the likes of Drake, Kelly Clarkson and Kendrick Lamar.

Representatives for Kreviazuk tell The Canadian Press that the album does not yet have a title, but it is expected to be released next year.

Kreviazuk's team says the idea has been percolating for some time.

Nicole Kidman files for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage, bringing a surprising end to a long and seemingly successful union that brought together two superstars from the worlds of movies and music.

The 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor petitioned on Tuesday to end her marriage to the 57-year-old Grammy winning country singer in a Nashville court. The documents state the couple has undergone “marital difficulties and irreconcilable differences.”

Kidman and Urban, two of the biggest stars to come out of Australia in recent decades, have been red carpet fixtures throughout their two-decade relationship, with Urban joining his wife at the Oscars and Kidman attending music events like the Academy of Country Music Awards.

The filings include a marriage dissolution and childcare plan agreed on by the couple and submitted for a judge's approval.

Allison Russell says she feels ‘galvanized’ by public outcry to Kimmel suspension

TORONTO - Allison Russell says the swift public outcry to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension has given her hope that people will continue to fight for free speech.

The Montreal folk singer and songwriter, who's now based in Nashville, says the response in the days after Disney-owned ABC suspended "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" proved that collective action can deliver results.

She pointed to the people who organized to cancel their Disney Plus and Hulu subscriptions, in a symbolic message to Disney, as one example of how a united front can push back "against that kind of fascism and muzzling of free speech."

“We have a great deal of collective power,” she said on the red carpet at the SOCAN Awards on Monday.

Allison Russell toasts Joni Mitchell at SOCAN Awards, Drake leads with six wins

TORONTO - Allison Russell paid a gentle tribute to her friend and mentor Joni Mitchell at the SOCAN Awards on Monday night, while superstar Drake emerged as the big winner.

Even though the Toronto rapper didn't show up for the industry soiree, he walked away with a historic six wins — the most of any artist in one year — including his fourth consecutive award for songwriter of the year in the performer category.

He also pocketed three rap music trophies, an R&B award and a dance music prize for his appearance on “Sideways,” a song by Maryland-raised DJ Gordo.

Dozens of SOCAN awards were handed out to homegrown songwriters, composers and music publishers at Toronto's Rebel concert venue. The SOCAN ceremony uses a conveyor-belt style of naming winners in small batches of around three to five awards in each genre with only some of them giving speeches.

Russian pianist holds keys to audience’s heart

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra kicked off its 2025/26 season with a bang Saturday night, welcoming back to its stage Russian superstar pianist Alexei Volodin.

Teen viola player from Elsipogtog First Nation invited to perform at Carnegie Hall

Daniel Milliea has loved music for as long as he can remember.

The 15-year-old from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick says he's been surrounded by song since even before he was born.

"My mom loves music, my family is all really into music. My mom had a speaker when she was pregnant with me that she would put on her belly," Milliea said in an interview Saturday.

"My mom told me she thinks I kicked her when I liked the music," he said.

WSO’s opening weekend features Russian pianist no stranger to musical marathons

The analogy is a familiar one; the classical soloist as athlete.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but a wrong note is a wrong note, and to play thousands of right ones for as many spectators requires the sort of physicality and training that we associate with world-class athletes.

World-class soloists also, often, cut their teeth in international competitions; heated events for live audiences catering to young virtuosos — where careers can be catapulted by a fraction of a point.

As winner of the prestigious Concours Géza Anda in 2003, Russian pianist Alexei Volodin (now in his late 40s), knows all about this. And if he were an athlete, it seems he’d be a marathon runner.

Analogue audio format the latest to undergo a digital-age revival

Swifties are going to want to familiarize themselves with a rewind button.

Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, comes out on Oct. 3. In addition to vinyl and compact disc versions, the American singer’s 12th studio release will also be available as an audio cassette, a once-popular music format that largely fell out of favour, but has lately been enjoying a bit of a rebirth.

Introduced in 1963, two-sided cassette tapes reached their zenith in the mid-1980s, when they began outselling their vinyl counterparts. In 1990, close to 500 million pre-recorded music cassettes were sold in North America alone. Compact discs and later, MP3 players, sounded their death knell. By 2010, annual sales had dwindled to 30,000.

Just when it seemed as if consumers would be hitting “eject” permanently, cassette tapes started to stage a comeback. Spurred on by music lovers searching for something more tangible than a file on their device, cassette sales in 2023 in Canada and the U.S. rebounded to almost 500,000. And now that top-40 artists such as Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX are choosing to issue new albums on audio cassette, that number should continue to rise, industry experts predict.

Manitoba musicians win big on home turf

Local musicians, bands and ensembles racked up the wins at this year’s Western Canadian Music Awards.

The 2025 artistic awards were presented Thursday at the Park Theatre, with one-third of winners hailing from Manitoba.

Winnipeg’s Tomiwa Omolayo, who performs as Tommyphyll, was named Afrobeats artist of the year — a new category for the awards, which celebrate acts from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Other first-time WCMA winners include the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra (jazz artist of the year), Leaf Rapids (roots artist of the year) and Jade Turner (country artist of the year).

New Orleans may be sinking but Tragically Hip high on the Canadian women’s rugby team

The Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker has added his voice to those behind the Canadian women's rugby team with a message of support Friday on the eve of the Rugby World Cup final against host England.

The band has already done its bit to help by teaming up with Rugby Canada on a Tragically Hip T-shirts and rugby jersey.

In a minute-long social media video released by Rugby Canada, Baker playfully refers to the top-ranked England Red Roses as "our colonial overlords."

"England is ranked No. 1 in the world and Canada is ranked No. 2," Baker said in the video, with the Hip's "Fifty-Mission Cap" playing in the background.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra musicians on strike, concerts cancelled

VANCOUVER - Unionized Vancouver Symphony Orchestra musicians have officially walked off the job, resulting in several show cancellations this weekend.

VSO President Angela Elster says in a statement that the company recognizes the right of the musicians to take collective action, but is disappointed about the impact to its audiences.

VSO says in a post to its website that the work stoppage means several events will not go ahead this weekend and more information will be communicated directly with ticket holders. 

Audrey Patterson, president of the board of directors for the Vancouver Musicians' Association union, says the employer’s current offer is a 15-per-cent wage increase over three years, to which the union countered with a 23-per-cent increase over the same term.

Neko Case’s ‘formidable’ new album invites multiple musicians for a big sound

If Neko Case had just one word to describe her first solo album in seven years, she would settle on “formidable.”

Fair enough. Writers have twisted themselves into knots trying to describe Case's sound — “gothic Americana” is one iteration — yet it's generally a thrill ride through shifting tones and tempos, anchored by her vivid imagery and titanic voice.

On the “Neon Grey Midnight Green” album, Case was intent on inviting a large number of musicians to join her, and their power is evident. She employs a 16-piece orchestra. Add in 10 other listed players (including herself) and that makes for 26 musicians on the album-ending song “Match-Lit” alone.

“I wanted to remind people of what it sounded like to have a large group of people playing together,” Case said. “That doesn't mean I have anything against synthesizer string sections or horn sections, because those things sound cool when you use them in the right way. And having a whole orchestra is cost prohibitive, especially now. I really wanted to do it because I didn't think I'd have the chance to do it again.”

Q&A: Mariah Carey enters ‘the era of me’ with her first album in 7 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seven years after her last album and 35 years into a powerhouse career, Mariah Carey continues her reign as the queen of pop and R&B with “Here for It All.”

If good things come to those who wait, fans are about to audibly feast on Carey’s evolution with this musically layered project.

Carey’s 16th studio album, out Friday, brings fans into what she’s calling “the era of me” — leaning into her now-familiar, unapologetically confident energy. “I’m D-I-V-A, that’s MC … I ain’t checked a price since Emancipation Mi … I’m the movie and the muse/and you couldn’t walk a mile in my shoes,” she sings on the first track, “Mi.”

The 11-track album includes singles “Type Dangerous,” sampling Eric B. and Rakim, and “Sugar Sweet,” featuring vocals from Kehlani and Shenseea. Anderson .Paak and the Clark Sisters join in the fun.