Canadian Artists Writing Hits for International Stars

The invisible credits

1. Christopher Ward — "Black Velvet." MuchMusic's first famous VJ co-wrote the song that made Alannah Myles a global star (see our "Black Velvet" feature) — a two-minute Elvis séance? — keep it clean: a two-minute ghost story that topped the American charts. The VJ wrote the hit; the history books almost missed it.
2. David Foster — the Whitney ballads. "I Have Nothing," "Run to You" (with Linda Thompson and Jud Friedman? — keep it clean: with co-writers) — the Bodyguard smashes that defined 90s balladry were architected by a Victoria kid (see our Foster feature).
3. The "Call Me Maybe" factory. Carly Rae Jepsen's worldwide phenomenon was co-written by Josh Ramsay (Marianas Trench) with Tavish Crowe (see our Jepsen feature) — a Canadian pop infrastructure producing a global #1.
4. Diane? no — the Toronto songwriting camps. The modern camp system (see our feature on songwriting camps) plants Canadian writers in Los Angeles rooms where the world's pop gets written; the country's writers-for-hire now populate the credits of artists who've never heard their names.
5. The "Work" and "God's Plan" machine. Toronto's producer-writers (Boi-1da, Frank Dukes, WondaGurl) have writing credits on the decade's biggest international records — the beat-makers as composers (see our producer features).
6. Gilles Vigneault's quiet conquest. "Mon pays" — covered worldwide, borrowed for films and ads — the Quebec songwriter whose melodies travel better than his name (see our chanson feature).
7. The Brill Building? no — the Nineties Canadian pop-writing class. A generation of Canadian topliners cut their teeth writing for Céline, for boy bands, for whoever needed the hook — the apprenticeship system that now feeds the global industry.
8. The publishing math. Canadian publishing houses (see our publisher feature) have long leveraged MAPL's "L" — lyrics — as an export: a Canadian-written song, wherever it's recorded, carries Canadian content value at home. The law made the export smart as well as lucrative.

Why the world borrows Canadian pens

The same literate, melody-first tradition that built Lightfoot and Cohen (see our features) built a craft class — writers trained on songs that have to mean something and sound like something, simultaneously. The world's pop industry figured out long ago that Canadian writers deliver both. The singers get the fame. The Canadians get the mailbox money — and the quiet satisfaction of hearing a stadium sing something they wrote in a Toronto basement.