Nadia Reid’s “Oh Canada” isn’t a cover of the country’s national anthem, but that doesn’t stop the New Zealander from honoring some of her favorite Canadian singer-songwriters on her new song, which Billboard premieres today (Feb. 10).
“I would like to go to Canada / I would like to go there with you,” Reid sings on the breezy, mid-tempo jaunt, which recalls such Canadian icons as Joni Mitchell and the Wainwrights over warm horns and electric guitar.
“Canada is a metaphor for all places and everywhere, but the phrase essentially came to me after I was reflecting on my long love affair with Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Joni Mitchell — Canadian artists that have constantly inspired and saved me through the years,” Reid tells Billboard. “I had also been particularly inspired by Michele Shocked’s song ‘Anchorage’ where she would reference place and city a lot. Which I have done throughout the record.
It is also about big love and new love and navigating being an artist in love with an artist. I was on tour a lot and I was getting more and more attention. There was friction and resentment. So ‘Oh Canada’ is about that relationship breaking down essentially. It was me working out what I was waiting for and what I wanted from life at that point in time. I finished the song in Portugal.”
“Oh Canada” is the latest taste of Out of My Province, Reid’s upcoming third studio album and a new start of sorts for the singer, who recorded the album in the U.S. rather than in her homeland and is recording for the first time via Spacebomb Records.
The album is due March 6, and Reid can be caught on tour all over the world this year, including Stateside when she arrives in Austin for South By Southwest next month.