The best Canadian duets

As of this writing, it's week bajillion of isolating and if it's just the two of you sharing under 600 square feet, chances are you need a new project to focus on. 

Have you considered duets?

To help distract yourselves, consider learning both parts in the duet, lip-syncing the duet, re-enacting the music video, or perhaps choreographing your own dance moves.

Need to take it to the next level? Translate the song into English or French or any other language you like. Perhaps transpose it to a new key. And, to help the artist you're covering, consider buying the song or the album or some merch from them. 

From Céline Dion and her sister Claudette to Jann Arden and Jackson Browne, we've got you covered. Scroll down for some of CBC Music's favourite duets.

Song: "Unloved"
Artists: Jann Arden and Jackson Browne

If loneliness is a dull ache, "Unloved" is a knife wound that refuses to heal. Thanks to crushing vocal performances by Arden and Browne, this 25-year-old duet remains a fresh hell for every heartbreak as well as the ensuing horror and dread of the gnawing expanse of absence in place of love. It's perfect because it hurts with a clarity that only music can bring. — Andrea Warner 

Song: "Wonderful Tonight"
Artists: Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins

When these two hooked up in 2007 to sing this Eric Clapton classic — arranged so sumptuously by David Foster — they likely hadn't planned on making a potent homoerotic duet, and yet that's exactly how I hear it. "I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes," they sing, seemingly to each other, their voices gently interlacing, "And the wonder of it all is that you just don't realize how much I love you." — Robert Rowat

Song: "Golf on TV"
Artists: Lennon Stella, JP Saxe

A recent arrival, this emotional duet from Lennon Stella and JP Saxe is about being completely content in a stable, drama-free relationship. "I'm done with romanticizing, dysfunction and compromising," sings Saxe, with Stella joining on the lines, "You treat me so well. It's weird, but I love how much I like it." Aversion to monogamy, like watching golf on TV, makes no sense, they assert while harmonizing beautifully. — RR

Song: "Beauty and the Beast"
Artists: Céline Dion, Peabo Bryson

Anyone who grew up on Disney's '90s blockbusters knows that "ooooooooooh" anywhere: it's the sound of romance, a.k.a. the sound of Céline Dion opening her Beauty and the Beast smash hit duet with Peabo Bryson. The song that begins with "a tale as old as time" was the first Disney song to crack Billboard Hot 100's top 10 — and collect a Golden Globe, two Grammys and an Oscar along with it. The way that Dion's and Bryon's voices push each other to newer heights with each verse is as close to PG-rated sex as you can get, musically, and the song — written by Disney's co-writing power duo Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman— perfectly soundtracks the the culmination of a lot of alone time for Belle and the Beast (sound familiar?). — Holly Gordon

Song: "Ring of Fire"
Artists: Lennon & Maisy, a.k.a the Stella Sisters

Before Lennon Stella, there was Lennon & Maisy, the sister duo from Oshawa, Ont., who've now been based in Nashville with their family for years. You may also know them as the actors behind Maddie and Daphne Conrad, the sisters on ABC's hit show Nashville. Back in 2013, at the height of the TV show's popularity, CBC Music went down to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium to meet the sisters for a session — and they did a version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" that's still stunning. Lennon was 13 at the time, Maisy 10, and with their acoustic guitar and ukulele they sound as if they've been singing this song all their young lives. It's a gentle cover, with Maisy's voice soaring over the chorus while Lennon's holds steady. It's no wonder Lennon is on this list twice. — HG

Song: "Vois comme c'est beau"
Artists: Céline and Claudette Dion

It feels like cheating to choose a second song with Céline Dion — she really is the queen of duets — but this number with her older sister Claudette is an unskippable gem. Released on Claudette's 1985 album, Hymnes à l'amour: Volume 2, "Vois comme c'est beau" is a ballad about how beautiful life is, and how you should want to live it fully — and if you need proof, just listen to the innocent children who sing outside the window (it's quite literal). In the original video, with a then 36-year-old Claudette and 17-year-old Céline sitting on a picnic blanket surrounded by surprisingly rapt children, we end up literally staring at shots of a baby interspersed with shots of the sisters singing to each other. It is such a wonderfully strange piece of art, and a window into the superstar Céline was becoming — though by 1985, she already had a debut album and a gold record. — HG

Song: "Kick It"
Artists: Peaches and Iggy Pop

When people think of duets, they often go straight for the ballads, but Peaches and Iggy Pop's 2003 collaboration "Kick It" is a great example of two forces colliding to create something electrifying and fun. Here, the two trade lines like barbs, referencing each other's work ("Ah, go f--k your pain away"; "Like you said, search and destroy") and only coming together with the common goal to "tear it up, rip it up, kick it up." — Melody Lau

Song: "Too Good"
Artists: Drake and Rihanna

Drake and Rihanna have a long history of duets, from 2010's "What's My Name" all the way up to Views highlight, "Too Good." The latter builds on a breezy dancehall beat as the former couple claims that the other is taking their love for granted. It's an effortless track that emphasizes the "genuine energy" between the two stars, as Drake once explained on his OVO Sound Radio show. As their real-life relationship continues to experience its ups and downs, fans can always turn to these musical keepsakes to remind them of more harmonious times. — ML

Song: "Islands in the Stream" (Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers cover)
Artists: Feist and the Constantines

Canadian indie artists Feist and the Constantines came together in 2008 to cover perhaps one of the greatest duets of all time. Their remake of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' "Islands in the Stream" is a quieter and more intimate affair, a reflection of the chilly winter day when the recording took shape. The instrumentals are kept at a minimum — just a steady kick drum setting a slowed-down pace while keys and guitar paint a starry backdrop — giving Feist and Constantines singer Bry Webb plenty of space to fill with their voices, coming together in gorgeous harmony. — ML  

Song: "Backseat"
Artists: Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen

Both Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen are pop outliers who have flirted with mainstream success but achieve their best work when they lean into a weirder, more experimental sound that diverges from the Top 40 path. "Backseat," a 2017 collaboration between the two for Charli XCX's Pop 2 mixtape, is a cult pop fever dream, a glitchy ode to loneliness that perfectly fuses Jepsen's sugary sweet earnestness with Charli XCX's bombastic cyber balladry. — ML

Song: "It's Only Love"
Artists: Bryan Adams and Tina Turner

Tina Turner and Bryan Adams are having so much fun dancing and singing at each other in this live video from 1985. The dramatic pause as they stare into each other's eyes before the call-and-answer of Adams' guitar and Turner's heartfelt howl — it's absolute perfection. The electricity between the two is a joy to witness, and you can see how exciting this moment is for Adams, who was only five years into his solo career at the time. He's on stage with an icon and it's the dance of a lifetime. Plus, think of the fun you'll have taking turns with your isolation companion deciding who gets to play the air guitar and who gets to try and replicate Turner's legendary moves. — Andrea Warner

Song: "Hey, That's no way to Say Goodbye"
Artists: Leonard Cohen and Judy Collins

Leonard Cohen's songs are marvels. We cannot know where they will take us, but we never get to the end without somehow being changed. When Cohen performed with his friends, particularly his female friends, other worlds were built inside his songs. These were new contexts for his subjects — the nameless and the named women, central but never centred — that existed solely through his gaze until liberated in duet. Judy Collins is the perfect companion here, her voice refusing to sync with his, loosely circling Cohen's phrases, harmonizing at her will and her wont. It's almost like they're singing in a round (a great challenge to try at home), as if there's more than just two of them in this moment. Like they're remembering back to the Newport Festival they mention at the top of the video, staying up all night to sing this song over and over again, a seance with their past selves being conjured right before our eyes. — AW

Song: "The Lovin' Sound"
Artists: Ian & Sylvia

Ian and Sylvia's vocal performances are a fascinating dance demonstrating the power of restraint, to say nothing of the slightly off-kilter melody, which is a delicious bit of irony given the song's title. There's also something quite purposefully instructive about when the song shifts suddenly and briefly for one verse and it's just Ian singing without Sylvia.

The search goes on dollars
And the work goes on for dimes
The young ones chase the rainbow
Old folks think of younger times
You'll never catch a rainbow
But love may come to you
Hold it close, don't let it get away
You're a loser if you do

Ian's delivery of these words reads like an invitation to other men to reassess their values and their vulnerability. It ends with a warning to not take intimacy for granted, and while "loser" might read like its own kind of toxic name-calling in 2020, in the '60s it feels more like a statement of lived experience. This might be just the kind of reminder we all need as isolation continues on. — AW