Popular Canadian Musicians Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jann Arden

The two songs mentioned in the question were written by Jann Arden, whose full birth name is Jann Arden Anne Richards. The songs both came from her second album, "Living Under June". Both tunes went to number one on the Canadian adult contemporary charts in 1994. "Insensitive" represents her biggest success internationally and it hit the number twelve position in 1994 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

The song also gained notoriety when it was included on the soundtrack of Christian Slater's 1996 film, "Bed of Roses".

Answer: Michael Buble

Michael Buble also won the 2010 Juno award for Pop Album of the Year for "Crazy Love", as well as winning the award for the song, "Haven't Met You Yet", which came from the same album. Before Buble's singing career began, he had a passion for hockey and dreamed of becoming a professional hockey player. Being multi-talented as both a singer and an actor, Michael has credits for starring in such movies as "The Snow Walker", "Totally Blonde", and "Duets", and he has many other credits for playing various roles in a variety of t.v. series.

Answer: "Stompin" Tom Connors

Born as Charles Thomas Connors, and also known by the moniker Tommy Messer, "Stompin" Tom Connors, spent much of his career and a lot of his money fighting the powers that be in an effort to bring more notoriety and recognition to Canadians artists who chose to improve their careers within Canadian borders.

He protested against any Canadian artist who took their act out of Canada and referred to those that did as "Turncoat Canadians". To express his seriousness regarding his ongoing fight with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission(CRTC), he also took up a protest against the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences(CARAS), the organization in charge of Canada's most prestigious musical awards known as the Juno. So serious was "Stompin" Tom in his cause, that he returned the six Junos he had received for past successes to CARAS, as well as sending a 'sharp' letter explaining his stance.

In the letter he informed them that he would neither accept any more awards nor nominations unless changes were made that would make it easier for Canadian musicians to be better recognized within their own borders.

It took twelve years, but enough satisfactory changes occurred that Connors restarted his career in 1986 and in 1988, his first album in almost twelve years was released.

Answer: Paul Shaffer

Paul Shaffer was born in 1949 in Fort William, Ontario, now known as Thunder Bay. He partook in many musical ventures before finding a permanent home in 1982 as the musical director for David Letterman's popular late night variety show. His musical ensemble on the show is known as "The World's Most Dangerous Band". In 2006, he was honoured with a place on Canada's "Walk of Fame".

Answer: Sarah McLachlan

As one of Canada's most successful and popular singer-songwriters, Sarah McLachlan has, indeed, won many music awards, including several Grammys and Junos. Her song, "Building a Mystery", is ranked as one of VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the Nineties. In 1997, it garnered both a Grammy and a Juno for Best Female Pop Song and Single of the Year. Sarah is a true philanthropist and animal lover, who has thrown her support behind causes that represent both people and animals. McLachlan was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on January 28, 1968.

Answer: Kim Mitchell

Kim Mitchell, born July 10, 1962, has been putting out great tunes for nearly forty years. He had excellent musical achievements both with the popular group Max Webster, and as a solo artist. His greatest success with Max Webster, a name that refers to nobody in particular, came from the album "A Million Vacations", which went platinum in Canada.

As a solo artist, Kim is probably best known for the albums "Shaking Like A Human Being", which gave him the smash single, "Go For Soda", and "Rockland", which went double platinum. Platinum in Canada means sales of one hundred thousand units. Mitchell's last album release came in 2007 and was entitled "Ain't Life Amazing".

He still plays live concerts but now spends most of his time as a radio show host for the enormously popular classic rock station, CILQ-FM 107.1 in Toronto, better known as "The Mighty Q107".

Answer: Bryan Adams

In addition to being an outstanding singer-songwriter, Bryan Adams is also a producer, actor, and accomplished photographer. As well, he is an extremely unselfish and generous philanthropist and humanitarian. Born November 5, 1959, Adams has built up an impressive and extensive discography, yet the list of lucrative photographic exhibitions in his repertoire nearly outweighs the list of musical recordings he's compiled. Because of his tireless efforts for humanitarian causes, in 2011 Adams was chosen to play with his band, in Kathmandu, Nepal, making him the first ever international artist to perform there.

Answer: Neil Young

Born November 12, 1945 as Neil Percival Young in Toronto, Ontario, the widely acclaimed Neil Young has enjoyed a long and storied career mostly as a solo performer, but also as the fourth man on the famous group, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. After many efforts of getting into music through a variety of solo efforts and small group projects, Young finally hit it big when he met up with Stephen Stills and his group to become one of the twin lead guitars with the band known as Buffalo Springfield.

Their first year, 1966, brought forth the resounding successful album "Buffalo Springfield" and their huge smash, "For What It's Worth". There have been many, many, other hit songs for Neil such as "Heart of Gold" and the album "Harvest". Over four decades after his first big success from 1966, he is still touring and putting out amazing songs.

Answer: Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, born November 17, 1938, in Orillia, Ontario, is referred to as Canada's greatest singer-songwriter and internationally is regarded as a rock-folk legend. Gordon has long admitted that his biggest musical influence is none other than Bob Dylan. Lightfoot was admittedly humbled by the request that it be he to give Dylan the award on the night Bob was inducted into the Ruck and Roll Hall of Fame.

The respect the two artists have for one another is public knowledge. Gordon Lightfoot's music has been covered by many famous artists, including; Barbara Streisand, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul, & Mary, Hank Williams Jr., Harry Belafonte, The Kingston Trio, and of course, Bob Dylan, just to mention several. Despite his continued frailty, especially due to the aneurysm he had in 2002, Lightfoot still continues to tour up to 60 times a year.

Answer: Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born born September 27, 1984 in the town of Napanee, Ontario, just outside of Kingston. At age fifteen, Avrile was doing performances with Shania Twain. At the age of sixteen, she had already garnered the attention of major recording artists and signed a two album contract with Arista Records.

She did not disappoint since those two albums for Arista both quickly reached number one with the first one, "Let's Go", making her the youngest female vocalist to reach the number one position in the UK.

By the time her next two albums had been released, they had both quickly reached number number one on several international and no less than six of the singles from the albums had also reached number one. With more than thirty million albums sold internationally, With more than 30 million copies of her albums sold worldwide, Lavigne has become one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 10.25 million copies certified by the RIAA.

Her recording efforts continue successfully and there are no signs that it is slowing down any time soon, which is awesome news for her millions of fans all over the world.