Chapters
Singing is famed for being one of the oldest careers known to man. Also, being a lucrative one, singers all over the world with enormous talent and vocal prowess have capitalized on this skill to amass a ton of listeners, support, fame, and of course, money.
Over the last few decades, many of the world's most influential and famous people were singers. This further confirms how great of a pedestal a good singing talent can be.
Read to the end to discover some popularly recognized singers who, in no particular order, have adequately utilized their singing talents and share a Canadian origin.
Canadian Singers Who Left Their Mark on History
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber was born on 1st March 1994 to his parents, Jeremy Jack Bieber and Pattie Mallette, in London, Ontario. His singing and music career started almost as soon as he was born, with him learning to play several musical instruments, including drums, piano, trumpet, and guitar. With these, he developed a musical ear and soon began to sing publicly.
By the time Bieber turned 12, he contested a local singing competition where he secured second place with his impressive rendition of "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, and his mother uploaded his performance on YouTube for his friends and family.
Eventually, his consistently excellent videos on YouTube, coupled with his busking in front of the Avon Theatre with a rented guitar, earned him recognition by Scooter Braun, an American record executive.
Within the year, he was signed onto RBMG records and released his debut EP titled My World, which became a major success. His army of listeners and fans named "Beliebers” would recognize Bieber as a teen idol and accumulate millions of views on his videos.
Capitalizing on this organic growth, Bieber released several musical projects, including the full-length version of his debut “EP titled My World 2.0 (2010),” “My Worlds Acoustic (2010),” “Christmas-themed Under the Mistletoe (2011),” “Believe and Believe Acoustic (2013),” “Purpose (2015),” “Changes (2020),” and “Justice (2021).”
Pop and R&B single from the My World album, “Baby,” peaked at number 5 on Billboard 100 while the album debuted at the No. 1 spot on Billboard 200. From his 2015 “Purpose'' album, three singles —What Do You Mean, Sorry, and Love Yourself —attained the number one spot on the Billboard singles chart. Bieber has also collaborated with several artists on multiple music projects, including Jack Ü's electro-pop hit titled "Where are you Now," which won in Best Dance/Electronic Recording category of Grammy Awards, “Ariana Grande's Stuck With U (2020),” and “Major Lazer's Cold Water (2016),” to mention but a few.
To date, Justin Bieber has received over 366 awards and received more than 438 nominations. He is currently the second-most followed Twitter user and the most-followed musician on the social app, with 114 million followers. Also, his YouTube channel has accumulated over 27 billion views and over 70 million subscribers (the highest ever for a solo music artist!)
Oscar Peterson
Oscar, revered widely as a jazz pianist and musician, was born on 15 August 1925 to his parents, Charles Joseph Peterson and Gertrude Mary Peterson (née Doyle), in Montreal, Quebec. Since his father was an organist that led the family band in churches and concerts, it was not unusual for young Oscar to develop an interest in music. His brothers, Ralph and Roy were also music enthusiasts that could play the trumpet, flugelhorn, clarinet, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone.
From an early age, Oscar learned to play the piano by ear and imitate artists such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Louis Armstrong through his parents' records while enjoying mentorship from his sister. It was not long until he began playing on the streets of Montreal's Jewish community.
Still, at a young age, Oscar diversified his interests in music and learned how to play other instruments. He got his first music teacher at the age of five and later studied under saxophonist Charlie Shavers at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He learned to play the clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, and trombone.
In 1949, he performed with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington on stage; this was one year after they recorded their album "The Big Band Years" together (originally released as two separate albums). With his smooth jazz solo skill, he also contributed to the recording of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" with his brother, Ralph, and Art Tatum on drums.
Oscar's bright career also led him to have multiple collaborations and performances, which gave him massive profits from CD sales, concert ticket sales, record sales, etc. Some of these performances include “Ella And Oscar Live,” “The Complete Hot Club De France Recordings,” by various artists, including Louis Armstrong (1959-1963).
Eventually, Oscar Peterson passed away at the age of 82, after a fruitful career run, on 23rd December 2007 in his home in Mississauga, Ontario.
Leonard Cohen
Named Leonard Norman Cohen legally, he was born on 21st September 1934 to his parents, Nathan Bernard Cohen and Marsha Klonitsky in Westmount, Quebec. Being born in an Orthodox Jewish family, he soon realized he had "a very Messianic childhood." After his formal education at Roslyn Elementary School and Herzilah High School, where he studied under the tutelage of Irving Layton, who would later become his literary inspiration, he studied poetry and music at Westmount High School.
These endeavors created a burning desire for musicianship in the young Canadian. He would teach himself how to play the acoustic guitar and create a country-folk music group —Buckskin Boys, where he often utilized this newfound skill.
With time, he switched to a classical guitar after he learned some flamenco and a few chords from a young Spanish guitar player, which led him to attain tremendous musical heights. As a poet and musician, his bibliography, discography, and filmography explored several themes, including depression, religion, politics, romantic relationships, sexuality, isolation, death, etc. He released eight live albums and fifteen (15) studio albums throughout his lifetime, including “New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974),” “Songs from a Room (1969),” “Songs of Love and Hate (1971),” “Death of a Ladies Man (1977),” etc.
This musical feat bagged him several awards, including three Grammys, five Juno awards, two MMAs, etc. He also received a ton of other award nominations. In his lifetime, Cohen was also inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and was bestowed the Companion of the Order of Canada honor which is Canada's highest civilian honor. After his death, on 7th November 2016, natives and city officials of Montreal remembered and honored him by naming streets and various locations —this includes a library— after him. Learn more!
David Foster
David Walter Foster was born to his parents —Maurice "Maury" Foster and Eleanor May Foster (née Vantreight) —on 1st November 1949, in Victoria, British Columbia.
From the early age of five, Foster had begun to learn how to play the piano. He took several piano lessons with which he honed his piano-playing skill. In 1963, he enrolled in the University of Washington, where the 13-year-old studied its music program.
His music career started gaining momentum when he took interest in Tommy Banks' nightclub band in Edmonton and auditioned for the band lead role. With the opportunity, Foster understudied Banks, who was a jazz musician and learned so much about producing records, jazz, and the music business in general.
With this development, he relocated to Toronto, where he played alongside Ronnie Hawkins in 1966, then to Los Angeles in 1971 with his pop music group named “Skylark'' which Eirik Wangberg discovered.
Throughout his career, David Foster has been associated with several hit songs, including Skylark's single titled "Wildflower"(1971), which peaked in the US top 10, 1980-Grammy-winning Earth, Wind, and Fire album, 1982-Grammy-winning Dreamgirls' original cast album. He also contributed to "Don't Want to Wait Anymore," which became a top 40 hit, "She's a Beauty." which peaked at number 10 on the US charts, The Tubes' albums —Completion Backward Principle (1981) and Outside Inside (1983). As a jazz-rock band, Chicago's producer, he produced and co-wrote their biggest-selling, “multi-platinum Chicago” 17 albums (1984), as well as Chicago 18 (1986) and Chicago 16 (1982).
David Foster has also worked with several industry names, including Celine Dion, Diane Warren, Whitney Houston, Kenny Loggins, Kenny Rogers, Mary J. Blige, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Renee Olstead, etc.
Throughout his eventful career, David Foster has bagged a total of 16 Grammy Awards, 47 Grammy Nominations, and a series of nominations for Academy Awards, BMI's, and Golden Globe Awards while winning a handful of them.
Ride Your Way to Stardom with Superprof
In the past, students have associated inconvenience and boring lectures with music classes. However, with the advent of the internet, learning has improved to an extent where ease of access is the order of the day.
With Superprof, learning has evolved into an even more convenient endeavor making it easier for students to receive pragmatic lessons and learn relevant skills with real-world use cases. Skills like singing, dancing and playing the piano, to mention but a few, are available on Superprof.
With experienced and well-seasoned tutors dedicated to guiding enrolled students, Superprof remains the ideal learning platform for you. Superprof also ensures that students have a wholesome learning experience through engaging activities, examinations, and interactive sessions that support the development of their creative skills.
Convenience, as a vital feature of learning via Superprof, entails that you can schedule classes to fit a busy schedule and receive music lessons from virtually anywhere —whether in your office or at home.
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