When a riff makes you homesick, when a single note snaps you back to the smell of summer grass, when the hum of a chorus fills up your insides with love: this is the power of a song. And there's always at least one song that conveys who we are, that gets at the root of our ideas about identity, country and home.
Canada means something different to every person. There's good and bad to be found inside its borders, and plenty of challenges to overcome and opportunities for improvement. But it's home.
For our Canada Day playlist, we asked CBC Music producers and CBC producers to tell us about the one song that always makes them think of Canada no matter what. From Joni Mitchell, Rascalz and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet to the Weakerthans, Hey Rosetta! and Spirit of the West, this is our Canada.
In Canada, we love it when one of our own gets recognition outside our borders. That's what happened to Quebec's France Joli in 1979 when she filled in at the last minute for Donna Summer at a big outdoor party at Fire Island, N.Y. The crowd of 5,000 went wild and her disco anthem "Come to Me" shot to the top of the pop charts. Joli was 16 at the time. The song reminds me of Montreal at the height of the disco era: carefree, optimistic and fun. — Robert Rowat
"One Great City" might not simmer with Tom Cochrane-level patriotism, but it’s as Canadian as you can get. Don’t blame John K. Samson for the downtrodden "I hate Winnipeg" refrain — after all, what Canadian doesn’t have a love/hate relationship with his hometown? — Adam Carter
Every Canadian who grew up in the '90s will recognize this instrumental classic before the opening bass note is complete. A ready stand-in for our national anthem if there ever was one. Bonus points for its connection to the CBC. — Mark Macarthur
These Newfoundlanders penned this soaring pop song as they were driving along Highway 17, a long stretch of road that runs from just outside the nation's capital, up through northern Ontario, right to the Manitoba border. Not only is this a tribute to that portion of the Trans-Canada Highway, it's an ode to that tender age between childhood and adulthood — precisely when I spent summers on family road trips, taking in the natural splendour of province after province through the window of our little Toyota Tercel. — Emma Godmere
OK, call me a shill but I've got to speak my truth: Shad's critical yet celebratory "Fam Jam" is the ultimate song for my Canada. It has been since before I worked with the guy. This line gets me every time: "Now when you're third world-born, but first world-formed, sometimes you feel pride, sometimes you feel torn." — Fabiola Carletti
Constantines' Tournament of Hearts came out when I was 15, and it kicked my ass. It was the first time I saw Canadian rock music as not only dynamic, but a true force to be reckoned with, and it was captained by Constantines. On a side note, I also used to restart the home screen on NHL 2K7 if it didn't start with "Working Full-Time." — Kerry Martin
There is very little more purely Canadian than Spirit of the West's "Home for a Rest." From the completely distinctive opening guitar strings, to the memories of chugging root beer before realizing the song was about binge drinking, this track oozes Canada. — Alex Redekop
As a kid in Scarborough, I lived in a Canada that wasn't as cool as the U.S. and a part of the city that felt like a Toronto afterthought. So, Kardinal Offishall's "Bakardi Slang" is a refreshing homage to the T-dot (when it was still called that) where I grew up. — Nicolle Weeks
The Barenaked Ladies were always unapologetically Canadian, but not in a way that suggested they were trying to promote Toronto to the world. They were just comfortable name-checking Toronto intersections and fixtures (GO Trains, Birchmount Stadium, Jane and St. Clair, buying a house on the old Danforth) so that you could follow their stories with a type of familiarity befitting of a Margaret Atwood novel. — NW
When Sam Roberts wrote this tune back in 1999, he wasn’t scared of the political implications of spelling out S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-M in a song about the Canadian dream. Because the unknown Montreal musician was pretty sure nobody would ever hear it. Fast-forward a decade, and "Canadian Dream" was sent to Barack Obama as part of a playlist to prime the pres on all things Canada. Which, according to this song, includes left-wing politics, superior spelling skills, frozen things and, of course, incredible music. — Talia Schlanger
"Breathe in the air and the stillness of the bay/ intensity of stars reflected in the water" reminds me of summer nights at the cottage out on the lake with the beauty of nature surrounding. — Cathy Irving
When this song came out in 1997, it meant so much to me as a small-town kid who was obsessed with rap from New York City. I thought that Canadian rap was inferior, and then here comes this amazing anthem consisting of rappers from B.C. and Toronto that actually took pride in being from the North (well before #wethenorth was a thing). For years afterward, through university and travelling abroad, I would play this song for anybody who dared to say they didn't like rap. And it always reminded me of Canada. With a chorus like that, how could it not? — Jesse Kinos-Goodin
The song is about Indian residential schools and the government's apology. It is an important part of Canada's history that should never be forgotten. We, as Indigenous Peoples, did not talk about residential schools for decades but in the last six or so years, these stories have been shared more and more. The media has covered it more and more. Murray was one of the first Aboriginal artists to write about residential schools, and his album, Songs Lived and Life Played, was recognized with a Juno Award! Whenever he plays this song live people cry, including Murray himself. — Kim Wheeler
As soon as Kim Harris sings, "In the woods, I find peace," I'm walking through a coastal forest in Nova Scotia, removed from every busy little thing, listening to her gorgeous voice guide me through the trees. It's so clear that Harris is herself rooted in nature, both in her native Newfoundland and chosen Nova Scotia home, that this song never fails to remind me of all the quiet, outdoor East Coast pockets, waiting for us on the outskirts of each city. — Holly Gordon
How can a song break your heart in half — ribcage-cracked-open levels of vulnerability — and still feel so resilient, so defiant, so honest and so very much like home? Whenever I'm on the road, drawing my own map of Canada on a barroom napkin, this is the song that swallows me whole like a dream. — Andrea Warner
Spectral Dusk, "Irving Lake Access Road" by Evening Hymns
This gorgeous, nine-minute instrumental piece of music is found in the back half of Evening Hymns' Spectral Dusk. It's a heavy record if you're willing to dig into it and this song provides a space to breathe, reflect and take it all in. And isn't that a bit what Canada is? A space where, no matter what you look like, who you love or where you were raised, you can find your space to breathe, reflect and just take it all in. — Judith Lynch