Canadian Music's Viral Moments: A Timeline

The timeline

2012"Call Me Maybe"

Carly Rae Jepsen's lip-sync video (see our feature) — the celebrity cameos, the cover cascade, the global singalong (see our videos feature).

2013the Vine generation

Shawn Mendes's six-second covers (see our feature) — the Vine pipeline (see our features) that minted stars (see our features) from bedrooms (see our bedroom feature).

2015"Hotline Bling"

Drake's dance meme (see our videos feature) — the video as participation (see our features).

2018"In My Feelings"

The challenge (see our videos feature) — the dance as global event (see our features).

2020"Blinding Lights"

The TikTok era's biggest song (see our streaming feature) — the viral loop (see our video-rebirth feature) perfected (see our features).

2021"Stay"

The Kid Laroi and Bieber collaboration (see our feature) — the cross-generational viral hit (see our features).

2023"Hayloft"

Mother Mother's resurrection (see our feature) — the old song as new viral moment (see our features).

2025the algorithm continues

The viral moments (see our features) multiply — the platforms (see our features) shift (see our features), the Canadian advantage (see our features) endures (see our features).

The viral advantage

The pattern (see our features): the Canadian (see our features) diaspora (see our diaspora features), the bilingual (see our Quebec features) and multilingual (see our Punjabi feature) fluency (see our features), the Toronto and Vancouver (see our features) infrastructure (see our scene features) — the viral moments (see our features) concentrate (see our streaming feature) north (see our features). The internet (see our features) is (see our features) Canadian (see our features) territory (see our features). The viral moments (see our features) prove (see our features) it (see our features). The timeline (see our features) continues (see our features). The next moment (see our features) is (see our features) loading (see our features).