Indigenous Musicians You Need on Your Playlist in 2026

1. Elisapie — The Inuk artist's Inuktitut (2023), reimagining classic songs in her language, earned the widest international attention of her career and made her a global voice for the North.
2. A Tribe Called Red (now The Halluci Nation) — The Ottawa group's powwow-step didn't just create a genre; it created a cultural engine — DJ sets, activism, and collaborations that put Indigenous electronic music on the world stage.
3. Snotty Nose Rez Kids — The Haisla duo's trap is fierce, funny, and politically unflinching — the rowdiest ambassadors Indigenous hip-hop has ever produced.
4. Tanya Tagaq — Inuk throat singing as avant-garde performance art; her Polaris-winning Animism remains one of the most radical Canadian records of the century.
5. William Prince — The Peguis-raised songwriter's Gospel First Nation and Stand in the Joy brought Indigenous storytelling to the Americana mainstream with a voice like a wide prairie sky.
6. The Jerry Cans — Iqaluit's country-folk party band, singing in Inuktitut and making the North dance — proof that “northern music” is a genre with a capital.
7. Aysanabee — The Oji-Cree singer-songwriter's Here and Now earned Polaris and Juno attention; his voice does things to a room that people describe afterward in lowered voices.
8. Silla and Rise — Inuit throat singers meet electronic production in a collaboration that feels both ancient and downloaded from the future.
9. DJ Shub — The Halluci Nation co-founder's solo work keeps the powwow-step flame burning with some of the hardest-hitting beats in the country.
10. DiggingRoots — Raven Kanatakta and Shoshona Kish's duo blends blues, folk, and rock with Two-Spirit perspective and some of the warmest harmonies in Canadian roots music.

Why this moment matters

For most of Canadian music history, Indigenous artists were excluded from the industry's machinery — from radio to award shows to venues. What's changed isn't talent (that was always there, from Buffy Sainte-Marie and Willie Dunn forward); it's access. Festivals book Indigenous headliners, labels are signing across the North, and Polaris voters keep rewarding the work — five of the last decade's shortlists have featured Indigenous-led records. The result: a generation making music with no need to translate itself for anyone.

How to go deeper

Start with the playlists (the artists' own picks are always the best), then the archives: Buffy Sainte-Marie's 60s folk-fury, Willie Dunn's protest records, the RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) collections of Indigenous music. Then catch these artists live — the powwow-step sets especially, where the tradition's oldest rhythm meets its newest technology, and the future of Canadian music is dancing in front of you.