As we are all very well aware, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on musical artists all over British Columbia, Canada, and the world for obvious reasons. Everything from not being able to perform in front of live audiences to studios not willing to let the artist use them for a couple of hours has caused a massive setback all over the province. For Lil’wat artist, Russell Wallace however, COVID -19 has impacted his music differently than most. Russell says that the fact that COVID-19 can be spread through breath is challenging for him and his community, especially because when Russell sings, it’s for and with his friends and family as at social gatherings or events in the community. As well, Wallace says it’s difficult knowing that doing something so traditional within his community and family can spread a deadly virus to his pears. Russell Wallace opened up in an interview with CBC about how he and his family have lost loved ones to COVID-19. As a result, he has been very cautious throughout the pandemic about staying away from people as much as possible.

Despite all the setbacks, Wallace was able to release an album he had been previously putting off for a couple of years back in February. An album that he says is surprised got as much attention as it got. Unceded Tongues is an album that combines pop, jazz, and blues with Salish musical styles. Perhaps most impressively is that the project is in the St’at’imc language, which Wallance admits he does not know 100% fluently. Throughout the album’s creation, Wallace had plenty of help from his friends, family, and community writing the songs because others knew the language better than he did. Wallace says that the pandemic has shown him that he and his community are very resilient at the end of the day.

For most artists, the pandemic meant a pause on performing for audiences; for Vancouver saul singer Dawn Pemberton, it meant switching from performing on stages to performing on radio waves. Despite not having performed since last spring due to COVID-19, Dawn Pemberton still has her voice heard as the host of an Alberta radio show named Get on the Good Foot.

Pemberton was the one who pitched the idea of Get on the Good Foot to CKUA and is a show that celebrates Black Music. Dawn Pemberton might still have her voice heard on the radio, but she says that the radio is no replacement for getting on stage in front of real people. Pemberton was scheduled to perform in two Vancouver theatre productions that have now been canceled; this would have meant Pemberton being on stage eight times a week. Unfortunately for Dawn and other artists from British Columbia, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have a habit of getting in the way of everything.

In an interview with CBC, Pemberton says that she misses the feeling of being on stage, “I really miss humans,” she said. However, Pemberton has continued to keep her voice active and is ready for when she is back on stage doing what she loves most. The soul singer says that her voice is currently better than ever, thanks in large part to her singing lessons that she has been keeping up with despite the pandemic. Dawn Pemberton is absolute proof that no matter what kind of shenanigans life decides to throw your way if you can manage to keep your head down and fight through it, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. With COVID vaccines being rolled out more and more in British Columbia, it surely won’t be long before Pemberton and other local artists can get back to performing in front of live audiences.

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Social Media has now been around for several years, and the large majority of younger people are well invested in it. Social media in today’s world has been made for the consumer; companies do whatever they can to keep people’s attention hooks by providing a seemingly infinite amount of content to consume every single day. On the flip side, for consumers to consume content, there need to be people out there to create the content. Just like every year, in 2021, creators are winning, and it starts with musical artists using social media platforms to gain attention for their songs in hopes of them going viral. This is precisely where TikTok comes into play for Mother Mother, an indie rock band based out of British Columbia.

Singer and guitarist for Mother Mother, Ryan Guldemond, says the band didn’t play for a live audience at all in 2020 but were still able to continue gaining an audience thanks to TikTok. Websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have always been places for artists to post their work for the entire world. Still, it’s understood that the chances of gaining millions and millions of views and likes were very rare for aspiring artists. On the contrary, social media applications, like TikTok and Instagram, have a reputation of making seemingly ordinary people into popular stars overnight.

I would definitely not call the band of Mother Mother “seemingly ordinary people” at all, but nevertheless, their incredible success on TikTok is just another example of the app helping creators from all corners of the earth gain a ton of popularity in a concise period of time. Since creating their TikTok account, Mother Mother has gained over 24 million likes, and that number continues to grow as I am writing this article and as you are reading it. Back on the eighth of April, Mother Mother released a new song named I Got Love with an inspiring “social media” like music video.

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In 2020, international superstar Harry Styles was set to perform live in Vancouver at Rogers Arena. But, unfortunately, a little thing called COVID-19, and because of it, Harry Styles had to cancel all of his summer concerts, including the one scheduled in Vancouver. A whole year later, Harry Styles is again scheduled to perform in Vancouver, but fans are not entirely convinced that the concert will go through as planned. There is a lot of speculation online that Styles’ initially scheduled concert date of August 16th will, because of COVID-19 regulations, be canceled or pushed further back.

In the past, Rogers Arena has seen its fair share of musical superstars and has been the go-to place for artists looking to perform in Canada’s third-largest city. In 2019 alone, Rogers Arena was host to artists such as Elton John, The Chainsmokers, The Who, Luka Combs, Lana Del Rey, Post Malone, Queen, and the best modern live performer in the industry, Travis Scott. However, Rogers Arena hasn’t seen a concert in over a year, and music lovers can’t wait to get back out and watch their favorite artists performing live. Lucky for them, Rogers Arena does have several big names scheduled to perform this summer, but, of course, nothing is set in stone, and British Columbia health experts can cancel or push concerts back in an instance. Some of the more prominent names scheduled this summer are Alternative/Indi musician Tame Impala, Canadien icon Celine Dion, R&B/soul artist John Legend and, of course, Harry Styles himself. I thought I should also mention that The Weeknd is supposed to be performing at Rogers Arena sometime this year but the exact dates and times are yet to be determined.

For Harry, he has been managing to perform live at many different venues all around Europe and is set to perform to begin his North American tour in August.

On Saturday, May 22, Encore Drive-In Nights featuring Bon Jovi will be airing at the Prince George Park Drive-In Theatre. This will be a one-night-only event and will be live at specific outdoor and drive-in venues across Canada, United States, and Ireland. Encore Drive-In Nights and leading health experts have partnered to ensure that the events are as safe as possible for everybody in attendance. There will be specific guidelines and requirements for vehicle spacing, entering/exiting your vehicle, window openness, and ensuring a contactless payment and ticketing system. If the concert is forced not to happen on the date scheduled because of the recommended guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the show will be moved to a further date. If the purchaser of the ticket cannot make it to the rescheduled date, the ticket purchaser will be refunded in full.

Bon Jovi is most commonly known for their 1986 album Slippery When Wet and, more specifically, their two all-time famous songs from the album, Livin’ On a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name. The latter hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 29th of 1986 and became Bon Jovi’s first-ever number one hit song. It would later re-enter the top 100 and number 29 in 2007 after it was performed on American Idol. You Give Love a Bad Name was later named the 20th ‘greatest’ rock song ever in 2009 by VH1. On the other hand, Livin’ On a Prayer was the band’s second consecutive number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit and has probably gone down as the band’s most famous song. Since the single was released in late 1986, Livin’ On a Prayer has gone platinum three times, having more than 3 million digital downloads, while its official music video has racked up over 775 million views on YouTube.

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Let’s Hear It! Live is a 7-part digital concert series and emerging artist showcase put on my Music BC. Let’s Hear It! Live gives unmanaged, unsigned, or independent local artists performance opportunities by showcasing them to representatives from the music industry. Including a variety of label reps, artist managers, A&R professionals, and agents, these music representatives will be able to provide a vast opportunity to local artists looking to make a name for themselves.

Already in its third year, Let’s Hear It! Live not only provides artists with connections to representatives from the music industry but helps musicians connect with fans from around the province. With concerts streaming from Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna, Let’s Hear It Live has featured more than 40 unsigned and emerging artists from around British Columbia and hopes to feature many more in the coming years. Let’s Hear It! The JUNO host community initially put together Let’s Hear It! live in hopes of independent and emerging BC artists who could grow their careers and become more connected with existing fans while simultaneously increasing their fanbase.

Last year, in 2020, Lete’s Hear It! Live went digital and, across five events, gained over 10 000 views across Facebook, and YouTube live streams for BC artists. The Let’s Hear It! Live platform has plenty of benefits for musical artists all around BC to get recognition from the music industry and fans, but that’s not all. Let’s Hear It! Live give its participants professional-level recording and video content, artist promotions through music BC and partners of Music BC, and a $500 guarantee for all artists selected. Outside of just the personal gain for the artists involved, Let’s Hear It! Live does remarkable things for the BC music industry as a whole. According to the Music BC website, Let’s Hear It! Live creates “a culture of inclusion and diversity within the BC music community .”

Bryan Adams announced over Twitter that, due to Covid-19 restrictions, all of his concerts planned for this summer would have to be canceled. Over his illustrious career, Bryand Adams has performed live over 3000, yes, 3000 times (according to concertarchives.org), the last time being on New Year’s Eve back in 2019.

Regrettably due to Covid-19 restrictions, all of our summer concerts are postponed until further notice. Please go to https://t.co/jSBvkx29Ut for details.

— Bryan Adams (@bryanadams) May 10, 2021

Bryan Adams released his first studio album in 1980 and been releasing projects ever since, with his most recent album coming out in 2019. But, probably, the most iconic artist to come out of British Columbia, Bryan Adams, has been in the mainstream spotlight for over four decades, with his primary claim to fame coming in 1984 when he released his classic album titled “Reckless.” “Reckless” might have only been ten tracks long but featured songs that are still played worldwide to this day. Most notably out of these songs is “Heaven” and, of course, “Summer of ’69.” Songs such as “Run to You,” “Somebody,” and “It’s Only Love” may not get the same world-renowned attention as his main two songs from the album but have made waves of their own in the music world at one point or another.

Since “Reckless” was released back in 1984, Bryan Adams has put out an incredible eleven other studio albums that continue to get plenty of attention from fans and music lovers all around. Although you could say that Bryan Adams’s “prime years” are behind him, as far as pumping out iconic, timeless hits every other year, Adams still manages to leave his mark on the music world.

Though he was born in Kingston, Ontario, and was raised from a young age overseas, in England, He eventually settled down in Vancouver at the age of 15, so we like to take all the credit. Now, however, Bryan Adams calls England his primary home while not on tour.

On August 4, 2021, world-famous Australian, Alternative/Indie artist Tame Impala will be coming to Rodgers Arena to perform his music. Scheduled initially for the 5th of August and then moved to the 4th; any tickets originally purchased for the 5th are still valid.

Tame Impala first burst onto the mainstream in 2010 with his first studio album, “Innerspeaker,” which, at the J awards, won Australian Album of the Year. Since then, Tame Impala has released smash record after smash record. In 2012, his next album, “Innerspeaker,” was released that featured hits such as “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and “Elephant.” In 2015 however, Tame Impala released one of the most iconic albums of the decade in the Alternative/Indie genre and one of the most iconic albums of the 2010s period.

His album “Currents” took over the Indie genre when it was first released and seemed only to get more and more popular with every year that passes. A big reason for this exponential growth in the project’s popularity is the online social media app TikTok. Anybody who has had the app for a few weeks would have heard the first 30 seconds to “The Less I Know the Better,” and if the name of the song doesn’t ring a bell, give it a listen, and you will most likely an “oh this song” moment. Outside of “The Less I Know the Better,” The Album has plenty of hit songs such as “Let It Happen,” “New Person, Same Old Mistakes,” and “Eventually.”

Since “Currents,” Tame Impala has only dropped one album, “The Slow Rush,” which came out last year in 2020, but he has had no shortage of features and hits. His most recognizable feature was on Travis Scott’s “SKELETONS,” which was a part of Travis’ 2018 album “ASTROWORLD.” Astroworld took the world by storm and, other than Tame Impala, had features from the biggest names in music like Drake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Juice Wrld, and 21 Savage.

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Now Tame Impala is back on tour and coming to Vancouver on August 4th.