5 Indigenous musicians to know in 2025

To celebrate National Indigenous History Month, CBC Music has selected five emerging Indigenous artists who are carving out spaces for themselves with their music. 

From soulful singer-songwriters to fiddlers who are embracing folk and country to experimental rockers, learn more about these musicians below.

Caley Watts

Folk singer-songwriter Caley Watts is a Saddle Lake Cree Nation musician with smooth, bright vocals, creating beautiful, rootsy songs that ooze emotion. As CBC Music producer Kelsey Adams wrote about Watts's song East Wind: "Her arresting vocals glide over the pared-back production, until the electric guitar takes centre stage in the song's latter half with a time-stopping solo." 

Watts has performed at both the Winnipeg and Edmonton folk festivals, and she recently took the stage at Road to the Junos earlier this year in Vancouver, singing songs including the country-tinged White Buffalo, as seen in the video above. In January, she was named the Indigenous ambassador for Spotify Canada, and curated the Indigenous playlist on the platform. Next up, she will release her debut album, River's Daughter, which she co-wrote with Juno winners including Serena Ryder, Sebastian Gaskin and more.

Ribbon Skirt

Montreal post-punk rockers Ribbon Skirt, the duo of Anishinaabe singer Tashiina Buswa and multi-instrumentalist Billy Riley, released their debut album, Bite Down, in April. Scoring a 7.7 review on Pitchfork and a glowing review on Stereogum, the songs hum and wail with shoegaze-y synths and Buswa's edgy vocals lift each note as she sings about kicking through window panes (Cellophane) and feeling abandoned (Wrong Planet). The album tackles themes  of personal grief and colonialism, and it comes together through punchy lyrics — "They want 2000's Buffy Marie/ they want my quantum so they send the police," Buswa sings on Off Rez — and rich, vivid textures (think: clanging drums, echoing tambourines and crickets chirping).

The band — which has played South by Southwest, Sled Island and more — was formerly known as Love Language. However, adopting a different name and a darker, more experimental sound allowed Buswa to embrace her heritage in a new way. "I think Indigenous musicians and BIPOC musicians in general should also be able to make music about their own unique experiences existing in the world as humans, and I think there's a way to strike a balance between that and making songs that also honour your culture and where you come from!" she told Range Magazine.

Thea May

Thea May, an Anishinaabe alt-rock singer from Atikameksheng, is signed with Ishkōdé Records (Amanda Rheaume and ShoShona Kish's label) and in March, she released her debut EP, Brought to You By Tragedy. Her partner's death inspired the project, and her emotions are palpable on gut-punch tracks such as F--k You For Dying, which is about "the frustrating reality of unfinished business with someone you lost too soon." Her emo, "grief rage" sound is uniquely her own, amplified by grungey guitars and her roaring vocal performance across the EP's six songs. Tracks such as You and Me and Front Row show off her piercing timbre, as she brings listeners into a diary of her catharsis.

"What's next is just more music and more stories and more real things," she told CBC News of what's to come. "I think the one thing that I love is that I'm writing about real stuff, and I'm writing about things that matter." 

Brianna Lizotte

Métis fiddler Brianna Lizotte graduated from MacEwan University with a music degree in 2018, and subsequently signed to the school's label, Bent River Records. It was through the label that the Edmonton-based musician released her second album, Winston & I, in 2024, and the project nabbed her a 2025 Juno nomination for traditional Indigenous artist of the year. The album has a colourful range, spanning lively songs for jigging and slow-burning tracks for waltzing. It was named after Cree fiddler Winston Wuttunee, and Lizotte plays his fiddle on the project. "The theme of the album is my life; it starts at 16, when I wrote a waltz for my grandparents, and that was my way of showing respect for my family and honouring where I came from," she told RD News Now.

Lizotte regularly teaches fiddling and also gives Métis history workshops on music and dance with her husband, musician Ethan Graves. Additionally, the couple often posts their delightful jam sessions together on social media.

Brenton David

Métis singer and multi-instrumentalist Brenton David is best known for being a banjoist, fiddler and guitarist in the Juno-winning Canadiana band Tim & the Glory Boys. However, last year he stepped out on his own to release his debut album, The Inner Trail, showcasing his solo country chops. Produced by Juno winner Murray Pulver, the album is an ode to Selkirk, Man., where David grew up: "The Inner Trail was Eveline Street, which runs right along the river from Selkirk basically to Lower Fort Garry in town. I just thought this was a really appropriate name for this record because I wrote all the songs here, living on Eveline Street," he explained on the podcast Made in Manitoba.

Having played the fiddle since he was five years old, David spotlights the instrument on the record, jubilantly weaving it into each track. The mandolin and steel pedal also shine on songs that tell the stories of houses with creaky front steps and cowgirls in denim jeans. David's voice is rich and twangy, soaring across each track: "You want to look away but you can't just yet, baby I'm a trainwreck," he sings on Trainwreck. The Inner Trail also earned a nomination for album of the year at the Manitoba Country Music Association Awards.