Hip, Feist, Loverboy, Voisine Enter Songwriters Hall

The Tragically Hip, Feist, Loverboy's Reno and Dean, and Roch Voisine were inducted at Toronto's Massey Hall on Saturday in a night built around Gord Downie.

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrated its 2026 class with a gala at Toronto's Massey Hall on Saturday, September 26, inducting Kingston alt-rock legends the Tragically Hip, Toronto indie mainstay Feist, Loverboy songwriting duo Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and French-Canadian artist Roch Voisine. The ceremony was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos and singer Marie-Mai, according to The Globe and Mail, and was presented by Amazon Music, per the GlobeNewswire press release carried by Digital Journal. The inductees' songs supplied the evening's backbone, with performers spanning arena rock, indie pop and love ballads.

The memory of the late Gord Downie, who died in 2017 after a brain cancer diagnosis, hung over the Hip's induction. Guitarist Rob Baker, flanked by Gord Sinclair and Paul Langlois, read a message he said was from Downie — the lyrics of the song 'Songwriter's Cabal' — telling the crowd, according to CBC News: 'I stood before the songwriters' cabal, all wide-eyed and enthralled, just to be included at all.' Downie was represented on stage by his purple, feathered, broad-brimmed hat from the band's 2016 final tour, resting on a microphone stand during a vocal-free medley, The Globe and Mail reports. Allison Russell blew a kiss to the stand before performing 'Wheat Kings,' ending with 'We will always love you, Gord.'

Grammy-winning producer Finneas inducted Feist, telling a story, as Stereogum reports, about meeting her by chance at an airport in 2018 before calling her 'so many of your favourite artists' favourite artist.' The Globe and Mail adds that video tributes arrived from Olivia Rodrigo, Bon Iver, Joe Jonas and Sam Smith, with Jarvis Cocker also taping a message. Feist, who turned 50 this year per CBC, joked that 'talking is harder than singing for me' before describing songwriting as circling questions: 'The size of the universe can be compressed down to four minutes, although my manager Robbie says three and half would be better.' Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, introduced by Stroumboulopoulos as perhaps the greatest living songwriter, sang a cover of her mournful 'The Park.'

Loverboy received a full-throttle salute: Amanda Marshall opened the show with a booming 'Turn Me Loose,' Ottawa artist Talk brought the crowd to its feet in a powder-blue fringed jumpsuit with 'Working for the Weekend,' and Todd Kerns performed 'The Kid Is Hot Tonite,' per Digital Journal. The Globe and Mail reports songwriting legend Jim Vallance confessed he had borrowed Loverboy's B-to-C chorus modulation for Glass Tiger's 'Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone).' Voisine, inducted by Olympic gold medallists Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey, delivered the night's biggest surprise — a choir-backed duet of 'I'll Always Be There' with Quebec icon Isabelle Boulay, backed by Toronto's Powerhouse Fellowship Soul Choir.

Our Lady Peace closed the night with a high-octane cover of the Hip's 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car.' Frontman Raine Maida shared how seeing the Tragically Hip at 18 inspired him to chase art over entertainment, and told the crowd to light up their phones 'for Mr. Gord Downie,' CBC News reports.

Baker called the induction 'an unfathomably huge and surreal honour,' placing the band in a pantheon with Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Rush, per the press release. Dean joked he and Reno would now 'share a Wikipedia page' with their Canadian songwriting idols. The ceremony streamed globally via Amazon Music, and the 2026 inductees will be permanently honoured at the Hall of Fame exhibit at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre in Calgary. ZALE and Marie Céleste were also recognized as 2026 Breakthrough Songwriter Award recipients, Digital Journal notes.