Canada’s taking over the world, or at least its music. July 2 marked the beginning of our month-long residency on Apple Music’s Beats 1.  For 5 consecutive Saturdays, Canadian personalities will take over this hour-long, part music, part infotainment show.

George Stroumboulopoulos kicked off the series exposing such homegrown talent as Darcys, Fucked Up & Sam Roberts Band to the over 100 countries that tune in live weekly.

“People have spent decades trying to discuss who Canadians are, so it’s impossible to accomplish such a big task in one hour” George Stroumboulopoulos told the Financial Post in an article about the takeover last month.

Strombo goes on in the article to say that the most difficult part of curating a show like this is the ability to showcase what’s relevant and ‘cool’ in the vast Canadian music landscape, from ‘coast-to-coast-to-coast’.

Beats 1, Apple Music’s 24/7 live-hosted music station, has seen previous success with the ‘Take Over’ series, with Canada being the third country to participate behind Australia’s Triple J for AusMonth and starRo in Tokyo, Japan.

Zane Lowe, chief resident DJ at Beats 1, said in the same FP article they “came to Canada from the point of view of us benefiting. It really wasn’t a case of ‘how can we help?’ – it was more like, ‘How can you help us get this music across a global audience and make us, Beats 1, sound even more exciting.”

Upcoming Takeover Shows

July 9  – Josie Dye (Toronto’s Edge 102.1, Cosmo TV) showcasing Dine Alone Records
July 16 – Coeur de Pirate representing Dare To Care Records
July 23 – Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene, Founder Arts & Crafts Records), for Arts & Crafts
July 30 – Emily Haines (Metric) For Last Gang Records