Canadian musicians look to TV contests for career boost

When Canadian country duo the Reklaws appeared on an episode of “America’s Got Talent” last month, some fans were confused.

Among the chatter on social media: Why would an established, award-winning band seek the approval of Simon Cowell and other show judges?

Siblings Jenna and Stuart Walker said they simply couldn’t turn down an opportunity to expand their musical career outside Canada.

“We could grind away in Nashville for the next 10 years or we could say yes to this competition and see if we can open that door a lot quicker,” Jenna Walker said in a recent video call from Toronto.

Producers on the long-running NBC competition show told them the fact they’re already established in Canada was part of their appeal, Stuart Walker added.

“They were like … ‘We’d love to be your stepping-stone to get a bigger fan base and an audience in front of you,’ so obviously we couldn’t say no,” he said.

The Reklaws, originally from North Dumfries, Ont., have been performing since 2012 and gained recognition with their song “Hometown Kids” in 2017. Over the years, they’ve received eight Canadian Country Music Association awards, eight Juno Award nominations and four number one radio singles in Canada, but that level of success has yet to extend south of the border.

The Reklaws said they first got the idea to try out for “America’s Got Talent” while filming a music video in Romania for their song “Honky Tonkin’ About,” featuring American country singer Drake Milligan, who appeared on the talent show last year. Milligan’s team offered to connect the Reklaws with people from “AGT,” which led to the pair getting recruited to audition for the show, they said.

The band auditioned with “People Don’t Talk About,” a deeply personal song about their late mother’s mental health struggles, and received a “yes” from all four “AGT” judges – including fellow Canadian Howie Mandel – to move onto the next stage of the competition, which begins Aug. 13.

A successful run on the show can give artists credibility and prestige in the U.S. — and the Reklaws are well positioned to seize the moment, said music publicist and commentator Eric Alper.

“They’ve got dozens of songs at the ready, waiting for new fans to listen to,” he said. “They’re in a very unique position that they can bring a lot of people very quickly along for the ride.”

Alper added that Canadian artists’ breakouts in other countries often require significant legwork and present a challenge for their record labels.

“You’re starting again at zero in some cases,” he said.

The Reklaws are not alone in seeking to raise their profile by competing on a popular talent show abroad.

Moroccan-Canadian pop singer Faouzia travelled even farther to perform on the Chinese competition series “Singer 2024,” which also featured American R&B singer Chanté Moore among the contestants.

Faouzia, 24, said she was approached by the show and jumped at the opportunity to expand her international audience.

“I was like, ‘You know what, you’re going to meet so many great people, you’re going to have so many cool experiences and you get to be on a show that you normally never would participate in,’ especially as a competition at this point in my career,” she said in a call from China.

Faouzia has worked with the likes of John Legend and Kanye West, was nominated for a breakthrough artist Juno Award in 2022, and her songs have garnered hundreds of millions of streams and views on Spotify, YouTube and TikTok. But she still has a low profile in the Canadian music scene.

“I’m not sure if I’m known in as much other parts of Canada as I guess like the rest of the world, but I am hoping with time I can achieve that,” said Faouzia, who grew up in Carman, Man., a small town outside Winnipeg.

Musicologist Jada Watson said international talent show competitions can be a “pathway to exposure” for artists who are looking to break glass ceilings, or gain momentum if they feel like they’ve reached a plateau in one market.

Watson, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, also said there’s often a disconnect between fans’ perceptions of an artist’s success and the realities of the music industry.

“A lot of fans think that if you’ve seen (musical acts) on a regional festival stage or you’ve seen them on the Junos, that must mean they are a massive artist with a big fan base, with a certain amount of capital that could support the career that they want to do — and that just isn’t the reality,” said Watson.

For the Reklaws, the hope is that their Canadian fans will also support their “America’s Got Talent” goals.

“I think if they were in our shoes, they would have done the same thing because those doors don’t open every day,” Jenna Walker said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2024.