Finalists Announced for the 2024 Breakthrough Songwriter Award presented by the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame with Amazon Music

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) and Amazon Music are pleased to announce the finalists of the 2024 Breakthrough Songwriter Award. The Award celebrates the current achievements and bright futures of Canadian songwriters on an upward trajectory in their careers.

This year’s finalists include six French language and five non-French language songwriters from across Canada. Winners will receive access to tools and resources provided by Amazon Music that will help them rise above the saturation and expand their craft and network of music collaborators globally. Additionally, each awardee will receive a customized development plan, which will include Amazon Music playlisting, high-profile songwriting sessions and camps, travel support, and access to international recording studios.

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Amazon Music invite the public to discover new music and VOTE for their favourite songwriter as the second round of voting gets underway by a panel of jurors.

Fans can vote daily at cshf.ca/songwriter-award/ until August 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET to earn their nominee a bonus vote. The winners in both categories will be announced during the week of September 2, 2024.

Past winners of this Award include Eli Brown, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Mustafa, Ariane Roy, Charlotte Cardin, Jessie Reyez, Lowell and Les Louanges.

This year’s Breakthrough Songwriter Award consisted of 26 outstanding candidates.

The top finalists were determined after a first round of voting by a juried panel of music industry professionals.

The 2024 finalists in the Non-French Language category are: 

Aaron Paris: Aaron Paris is a 3x Grammy-nominated producer, composer, and artist from Toronto, Canada. Having worked with major artists including Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Drake, DJ Khaled, Russ, Kali Uchis, Roddy Ricch, NAV, Russ, Blxst, and more, Paris has built a strong international reputation as a musical composer and collaborator. As a multi-instrumentalist and string arranger, he is dedicated to bringing the “new classical” sound into the modern music industry. He founded the group “Strings From Paris”, a collective of string players which aims to bridge classical and modern worlds and educate the next generation. Their videos have gained millions of views on Instagram and TikTok.

Ali Willa Milner: Fresh off a Grammy nomination for her work with The Knocks and Dragonette, Ali Willa Milner found herself part of six Juno nominations and was individually nominated for Billboard Canada’s Non-Performing Songwriter Of The Year for her work in 2023. Her writing led to those Juno nominations with Reve, Katie Tupper, and multiple nominations for Aysanabee who won two; including Songwriter Of The Year. Her original songs were also featured in national and international advertising campaigns for Kia, Tinder, TSN, and more and her most recent single was selected as a feature track in Apple+’s Land Of Women. Ali also has a focus on mentoring upcoming songwriters and co-hosted a song camp with SNGL and SheWrites; an organization focused on connecting and championing women, non-binary, and trans songwriters and producers.

Banx & Ranx: Banx & Ranx, the JUNO Award-winning duo of Zacharie “Soké” Raymond and Yannick “KNY Factory” Rastogi, have amassed over 4 billion streams and garnered GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations. Since forming in 2014, they’ve collaborated with global stars like Dua Lipa, BLACKPINK, Jung Kook, Sean Paul, and David Guetta, bringing their unique electronic sound from Montréal to the world.Partnered with Universal Music Canada, they’ve propelled Canadian talent, achieving multiple Platinum hits with their label 31 East.

Sarcastic Sounds: Sarcastic Sounds, a prodigious artist / writer-producer seamlessly blends organic instruments like guitar and ukulele with his passion for hip-hop. He creates emotional compositions as exemplified by recent co-wrote “Daylight” with David Kushner, which peaked at #2 in the UK charts and #3 worldwide on streaming. With 750+ million streams and 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, his endearing writing style captures wit, nostalgia, melancholy, and hope. Sarcastic Sounds’ contemporary production style is evident in collaborations with artists like Boy With Uke, Mimi Webb, Powfu and more.

Sebastian Gaskin: How does an emotional aftermath evolve into an epiphany? For award-winning Toronto-based, Tataskweyak Cree Nation multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and producer Sebastian Gaskin, first, they get comfortable with the outcome, then get to work sculpting their experience into a song. It’s the mark of an artist unafraid to look deeply into themselves— in the process, creating a sonic offering designed to embrace our many broken pieces, while reminding us that love and vulnerability are acts of resistance. Intentionally genre amorphous, Gaskin’s music lends itself to a bold intuition and gut instinct. At once, conjuring the timeless spirit of Bill Withers and the musical virtuosity of John Mayer, with the mischievous wordplay of Post Malone and Pro Era. A dynamic producer and arranger, Gaskin’s ear for collaboration (and an undeniable earworm) has led them to work with Evan Miles (dvsn, renforshort) and Milano (Icona Pop) to reimagine the potential of each genre they explore. Racking up 150,000+ streams across Canada and playing venues and festival stages around the world, they’ve supported artists ranging from Common and T-Pain, to the legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie. Their forthcoming debut album will be released on the Indigenous-owned music company, Red Music Rising, Ishkōdé Records and Universal Music Canada.

In the French Language category for the Breakthrough Songwriter Award, finalists are Fredz, Jay Scøtt, P’tit Belliveau, Soleil Launière, Thierry Larose and Waahli.

For more information, music streaming, and voting, visit cshf.ca/songwriter-award/