As many of you probably know, Canada is home to a great number of top-rated musicians that have conquered the tops of numerous music charts. In the following paragraphs of our article, we will reveal the names of the best Canadian artists for 2021. We’ll provide some data regarding their personal and professional life, and we’ll focus on the accomplishments they’ve achieved during the year.
Top-Rated Canadian Musicians for 2021
Many people are unfamiliar with the fact that some of the greatest names in the music industry are actually Canadians. We’re talking about stars, such as Drake, Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd, and many more. In the next couple of sections, we will familiarize you with the top four Canadian artists for 2021. Each one of them has also released several hits that have become a part of millions of people’s playlists.
Drake
Drake is unquestionably one of the most successful Canadian musicians for 2021. However, the artist’s very first performance was not on stage. In fact, his initial appearance was in a TV series called Degrassi: The Next Generation. Even though he was in the film industry, Drake never stopped working on producing music.
In 2006, he managed to release his very first mixtape called Room for Improvement. His talent quickly got appreciated by both listeners and producers, and his walk of glory began. Each year was more and more successful for the rapper, and in 2021 he won several incredibly prestigious rewards, as well. The 2021 Billboard Music Awards event was surely a dream come true for the musician. He left the stage with two prominent awards in total. He became a proud owner of the following prizes:
- Artist of the Decade
- Streaming Songs Artist
Even though the overall number of awards he got is not considerable, these two prizes are undoubtedly some of the most renowned ones. In 2021, the artist released several songs that became absolute hits in a matter of hours. One of them is Way 2 Sexy, which features Future and Young Thug. Additionally, Drake was a nominee in several other categories, such as Artist of 2021, Male Artist of 2021, Billboard 200 Artist, and so on. Some of these were granted to the next musician we’ll focus our attention on.
The Weeknd
The Weekend is probably one of the most well-known artists on a global scale. Similar to many other artists, his career also began on YouTube. His first songs quickly took over the top places on several charts. Today, they’re still considered some of the best alternative R&B singles. The musician’s success just hit the ceiling in the last couple of years, and 2021 was surely his luckiest year. Not only did he release many great catchy songs, but he also won several prestigious awards. His album After Hours was the winner in the Top R&B Album for the 2021 nomination list. The artist also grabbed 14 awards in total for his single Blinding Lights:
- Pop Music Award
- International Song Award
- Best Male International Video
- Best R&B Song
- Video of the Year
- Single of the Year
- Song of the Year
- Titanium Song of the Year
- TikTok Bop of the Year
- Most Weeks in the Top 10 of the US Hot 100
- Most Weeks in the Top 5 of the US Hot 50
- Top Hot 100 Song
- Top R&B Song
- Top Radio Song
In addition to all this, the Weeknd was also nominated in a few other categories. Unsurprisingly, he won most of the respective awards. Most importantly, however, he is the artist that earned the most considerable number of prizes from the Billboard Music Awards 2021. The most prestigious ones are Top Male Artist, Top R&B Artist, and Top Artist.
Shawn Mendes
The third one in our listing of the best Canadian artists for 2021 is Shawn Mendes. Even though the young talent did not earn as many awards as Drake and The Weeknd, he is still considered one of the most successful musicians. His songs Wonder and Monster were the winner in the SOCAN Awards category called Pop Music Awards. Additionally, he grabbed the Fan Choice Award given by the Canadian Juno Awards. Mendes’ popularity started growing back in 2013 when he began uploading videos on YouTube. In no time, he gathered a large group of fans who enjoyed every song cover he performed. His first single was released in 2014 and was named Life of the Party. In the same year, Mendes won his first Teen Choice award, namely Webstar in Music for 2014.
Justin Bieber
We can’t miss the opportunity to tell you a bit more about Justin Bieber’s success in 2021. As you know, he is one of the most well-known Canadian musicians of all time. YouTube was the starting point of Bieber’s career. The young boy got noticed by a marketing executive who, impressed by his talent, did not hesitate to reach Justin’s mother because, at that time, the singer was only 13.
Just a couple of weeks later, Bieber was singing for Usher. One Time was the Canadian’s debut single, which was certified golden in Australia and platinum in Canada. During the years, Bieber has won more than 60 awards in total and has become Artist of the Year twice. In 2021 he wins the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for 10,000 Hours. His fifth studio album Changes, on the other hand, became the Pop Album of 2021.
During the MTV Video Music Awards, Justin left the evening with Best Pop Award for his song Peaches. At the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers Awards, Bieber and his colleagues Dan + Shay earned the Winning Songwriters and Publishers award for their hit 10,000 Hours.