Listen: 2019 Searchlight winner Shopé debuts new single

Earlier this year, Nigerian-Canadian hip-hop artist Shopé beat out thousands of other Canadian artists to win Searchlight 2019, our annual hunt for Canada's best undiscovered musical talent. 

Shopé won a lot of prizes, all of which are geared to take his career to the next level in the Canadian music industry. The Toronto artist cashed in on two of his major prizes in October. 

Last week, Shopé was one of a select group of emerging artists to take part in the intensive, week-long Allan Slaight Juno Master Class in Toronto, which wrapped up with a live showcase at a downtown venue.

Shopé has spent all of this week recording at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre in Calgary. To cap off his residency and his Searchlight-winning year, today he's releasing a brand new song and video, both recorded at Studio Bell. And it has a very Canadian title: "Sorry."

"This song definitely tips fairly into my African side," says Shopé. "So I'm excited to see/hear the response. The song boldly dives headfirst into themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. It's such an honour to get to create in this incredible space. Everything from the vast musical collection, to the state-of-the-art equipment, to the architecture of the space activates every creative receptor in me. I am making some of the best music I've ever made in my career, and it's all thanks to the National Music Centre."

The song boldly dives headfirst into themes of forgiveness and reconciliation.- Shopé

Shopé's Searchlight-winning single, "Come Wid It," is also one of the songs available for Canadian music students to learn in this fall's Canadian Music Class Challenge. 

Searchlight 2020 begins in January.