Tag: Charlotte Cardin

Canada’s Own Rupi Kaur Curates the Latest Edition of Local Spot, Revealing the Songs and Artists That Shaped Her

March 11, 2025

For many people, music can serve as a reflection of their roots and upbringing. With Spotify’s playlist series Local Spot, celebrated Canadians are given a cool, eclectic space to introduce fans to their favorite Canadian artists. 

Featuring all-Canadian music curation, Local Spot offers global audiences a glimpse into the unique music tastes of the country’s celebrated figures. For our latest edition of Local Spot, poet, artist, and performer Rupi Kaur takes over as our featured curator. 

A breakout literary phenomenon and number-one New York Times bestselling author, Rupi wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first poetry collection, milk and honey, in 2014, followed by the sun and her flowers, home body, and healing through words. Together, these collections have sold more than 12 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Rupi has also made her mark in film and television, producing a first-of-its-kind poetry special, Rupi Kaur Live, the film This Place, and the 2024 Academy Award–nominated film To Kill a Tiger.

For her contribution to Local Spot, Rupi takes listeners on a journey through the songs and artists who inspire her, including Shawn Mendes, Charlotte Day Wilson, The Weeknd, Avril Lavigne, Daniel Caesar, KAYTRANADA, and Celine Dion. Ahead of the playlist’s release, For the Record sat down with Rupi to talk about her experience curating Local Spot, her influences and creative process, and how growing up in Canada has shaped her.

Talk to us about curating Local Spot.

It was so much fun to revisit some of my favorite tracks from the last 15 years or so. I actually felt very at home listening to them and was moved to write. 

In one sentence, how would you describe your playlist?

The songs that raised and healed me. 

What does your Canadian identity mean to you?

As an immigrant, I have always felt like Canada is a place of inclusivity and hope. I have always existed between two worlds—my parents’ homeland and the one we built here. That duality is in everything I write. Now, as I travel the world, I’m often reminded of how much the diversity of Canada has contributed to my art. 

Who are some of your favorite Canadian authors and music artists?

Canadian writers I have deep love for include Michael Ondaatje, Lawrence Hill, Alice Munro. My favorite Canadian music artists are Charlotte Cardin, Charlotte Day Wilson, and The Weeknd. 

What’s your writing process like?

Writing is a conversation with myself. It starts with a feeling—something stirring deep in my gut. I sit with it and let it rise to the surface. My best ideas come when I give them space. They visit in the quiet moments—long walks, in the middle of a conversation, or right before I fall asleep. 

How do you incorporate listening to music into that process?

Music sets the tone and pulls me back into memories of the past or hopes for the future. Sometimes I need silence—to hear the rhythm of the poem itself. But oftentimes I use music to set the mood.  

Do you think there’s a crossover between music and literature?

Absolutely. Both are rhythmic. Both tell stories. A poem is a song stripped of its melody, and a song is a poem brought to life through sound. Before he started his career as a musician, Leonard Cohen was a poet and novelist. That’s just one of many examples that showcase that there’s so much natural crossover between the crafts. 

What writer or music artist has had the biggest influence on you?

Khalil Gibran taught me about duality. Audre Lorde and Bell Hooks taught me about power. In music, I return to Nina Simone, Florence Welch, and the haunting melodies of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Your books milk and honey, the sun and her flowers, and homebody touch on love, loss, trauma, and healing. Is listening to music, podcasts, or audiobooks part of a healthy routine for you?

Music, podcasts, books are all part of my healing. Some days, I need a song that holds me. Other days, I need words that remind me I am not alone. 

What does it mean to you to know that your fans get to hear you read your works on the audiobook versions of your books?

I write my poetry with sound in mind—the way the words flow, the rhythm of each line. Hearing me read it aloud brings that element to life. For a reader, poetry is personal and they interpret it through their own lens. For a listener, they hear it the way it was meant to be spoken. 

What’s your earliest memory of stories being read aloud to you?

My father’s voice. He would sit with me and recite Punjabi poetry, letting the words dance in the air between us. He taught me that poetry is meant to be felt, not just understood.

Press play to listen to Rupi’s collection of Canadian gems in the latest edition of Local Spot:

Charlotte Cardin Kicks Off ‘CAN You Hear Me,’ Spotify’s New Series Dedicated to Canada’s One-of-a-Kind Music Scene

May 31, 2023

In celebration of Canadian artistry, For the Record is launching CAN You Hear Me, a series championing the music, unique talent, and diverse cultures found in the Great White North—from the jazz bars in Québec to the dance clubs in Ontario all the way to the powwows in the west.

Kicking off our series is French-Canadian artist Charlotte Cardin. Charlotte’s smoky and sensual voice, genre-defying pop sound, and deeply vulnerable songwriting have made her one of the most notable breakout artists from Canada in recent years.

The 28-year-old performer grew up in the French-Canadian music mecca of Montréal, Québec, where legends like KAYTRANADA, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and the queen of divas herself—Céline Dion—got their start. Charlotte made a strong first impression in 2016 with her debut release, Big Boy. Creating a deeply atmospheric-yet-minimal vibe, the bilingual EP quickly rose the charts and earned her a nomination for the 2017 SOCAN Songwriting Prize. In the process, Charlotte became the first artist in SOCAN history to be nominated in both the French and English categories.

Charlotte continued to build on that momentum, and she hit a career milestone in 2021 when her debut album, Phoenix, spent two weeks at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart. In the months that followed, the album was longlisted for the 2021 Polaris Music Prize, and Charlotte was the most-nominated artist at the 2022 Juno Awards, where she won Album of the Year, Pop Album of the Year, Single of the Year (for “Meaningless“), and the highly coveted Artist of the Year.

Charlotte shows no signs of slowing down. The singer has performed for fans all over the world, and she participated in Spotify Singles, where she delivered an incredible Spanish/English mixed cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back 2 Black” and a French version of “XOXO” from Phoenix.

Most recently, Charlotte surprised fans with the release of “Confetti” and “Looping,” the first singles from her upcoming album, 99 Nights. She also announced plans for a 40-date world tour kicking off at the end of August.

For the Record sat down with Charlotte to talk about life growing up in Canada, the Montréal music scene, and what songs she’s got on repeat.

Tell us a bit about your journey into music.

I started doing music when I was very young. While neither of my parents were professionally into music, we were a musical family. My dad was—and still is—a huge rock fan, and my mom always encouraged us to have a bit of musical knowledge. When I was eight years old, I started taking singing lessons and it was a total love-at-first-sight situation. I had always enjoyed singing, but to learn how to do it properly and control my voice was like being in a massive playground. 

Growing up, I discovered all these people from my small city who were doing these really beautiful, creative things. Seeing them made me want to both follow in their footsteps and explore my own path. After taking singing lessons for 10 years, I finally started writing music, which also doubled as a way to process my emotions.

How would you describe the music scene in Montréal?

Extremely eclectic and creative. I think that comes from the fact that the city is bilingual, so you have these bubbles of Francophone and Anglophone singer-songwriters with their own little ecosystems who coexist beautifully. They’re always moving and merging and doing new things across so many genres. And when you combine that with all the different international cultures that exist in Montréal, you get something so beautiful, diverse, and stimulating.

Can you tell us about the unique balancing act required to bring both Québécois and English into your music?

It’s always come pretty naturally to me, especially when I’m singing. It’s hard to explain, but growing up bilingual, I feel certain parts of my personality are better expressed in one language or the other, depending on how I experienced the story I’m telling. It all just kind of coexists inside of me. Most of my music is in English, but singing in French is important to me because, being French Canadian, I feel like there’s a huge appreciation from my Francophone fans. And ultimately, that allows me to connect even more to them.

Can you tell us a little bit about your new album, 99 Nights?

I’m very excited about releasing 99 Nights this summer. It’s an album that’s very meaningful to me and was written in a time when I was going through a lot of personal stuff. So the creative process behind the album was very much an escape mechanism, which fans will hear in the extremely vulnerable songwriting and storytelling. It’s called 99 Nights because, for the first three months or so that I spent writing the album, I was just trying to reconnect with the important stuff in my life and make some big changes. It was pretty therapeutic and helped me cope with a lot of big things and make some huge life changes.

Honestly, I just hope that some people can just relate to the experiences I’ve shared on the album and have it help them. 

What was it like working on Spotify Singles?

It was so cool to have so much creative leeway with the music I wanted to cover. I love listening to Spotify Singles because it’s nice to hear artists cover other artists and find a fun way to merge different genres. That really inspired me to be extra playful with my song choices and the styles I performed them in.

What Canadian artists have inspired you?

There are so many, but the first name that comes to mind is Patrick Watson, who has become a very dear friend of mine. I grew up respecting his music immensely and still do. He has such a talent for painting beautiful pictures with his music, so it was wonderful to collaborate with this artist, who it turns out lived just a few streets down from me when I was in Montréal.

And it may be a cliché answer, but as a French-Canadian girl growing up in the late ’90s, Celine Dion is the reason I started singing. There are so many home videos of me singing her songs in recitals and talent shows. Listening to her now as an adult, I feel this deep, nostalgic connection that’s always been a part of my life.

What songs would we find on your On Repeat playlist?

It’s funny because I feel like I’ve been curating this one playlist for the last 10 years, and it’s almost all I listen to. But I feel like one song that comes to mind is “Sideways” by Citizen Cope. It’s just like one of my ultimate favorite songs. Other songs in heavy rotation include “House of Cards” by Radiohead and “I Try” by Macy Gray. 

 

Get ready for 99 Nights by hitting play on Charlotte Cardin’s latest singles.