Certain years in music history represent a sea change of sorts. Think 1967, the so-called Summer of Love, when pop music exploded into psychedelic colours. Or 1991, the “year punk broke” via Nirvana, marking the mainstream crossover of an underground scene.

In Canada, that year was 2000. It was a year when this country's stars of the 1990s were at their peak or taking victory laps, but it was also when an exciting new wave of artists was getting ready to change international perceptions of Canadian music, both inside and outside the mainstream. Canada, which likes to see itself as an underdog, was punching far above its weight in musical exports.

First, the superstars.

SHANIA TWAIN was taking a breather after a two-year tour promoting Come on Over, an album that sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. In 1999, she was among the most played artists on U.S. radio, and had become one of the most successful female performers of all time.

CÉLINE DION sold 17 million copies of her 2000 greatest-hits album, All the Way: A Decade of Song.

DIANA KRALL won two Grammys in February 2000, including Best Jazz Vocal, for her album When I Look in Your Eyes, which was also nominated for Album of the Year - the first jazz record to appear in that category in 25 years.

SARAH McLACHLAN capped off her decade-long rise by performing “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 at the Oscars, watched by 79 million viewers.

BARENAKED LADIES' 2000 album, Maroon, was the band's second million-seller in the U.S., and their second No. 1 album in Canada.

By that point, though, all these artists were preparing to become the old guard. A new crop was on the rise.

NICKELBACK's second album, The State, became the band's first to go gold in both Canada and the U.S. While that was happening, they were writing material for 2001's Silver Side Up, which has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. At the end of that decade, Nickelback were named the top-selling group of the 2000s by Billboard, edging out Destiny's Child

NELLY FURTADO released her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, in October 2000. Fuelled by the lead single “I'm Like a Bird,” it sold six million copies in the U.S., where the 22-year-old was hailed as a wholesome pop alternative to Britney Spears. That same year, SARAH HARMER was transitioning out of her '90s rock band, Weeping Tile, into a mainstream folk-pop star with her solo debut, You Were Here, and its single, “Basement Apt."

SUM 41 were teenagers from Oshawa, Ontario, whose 2000 EP, Half Hour of Power – filled with a snotty mix of heavy metal, mall punk and hip-hop swagger – went gold in Canada. After signing to Island Records, their 2001 full-length debut, All Killer No Filler, went platinum in the U.S., double platinum in the U.K. and triple platinum at home. Having just completed their farewell tour in January of this year, on March 30 the band were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame – the same day they gave what is presumed to be their final performance, at the 2025 JUNO Awards in Vancouver.

This story has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the original version in the Spring/Summer 2025 edition of driver magazine.

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