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Last year was a banner one for Jade LeMac. The 21-year-old pop artist from Victoria put out an EP called It’s Always At Night, opened for country singer Maren Morris on her North American tour, and played massive festivals like Lollapalooza and Osheaga.
Vancouver-based LeMac broke out in 2021 when her debut single, “Constellations”, racked up over a million Spotify streams in its first month. She’s been busy since then, releasing music (It’s Always At Night marked her third EP), going on tour, and building her social media following (she has some 1.7 million followers on TikTok).
2026 won’t be much of a break, either. LeMac heads out on her first solo headlining tour this month when she plays her hometown’s Capital Ballroom on January 17. Then, she plays her adopted city’s Hollywood Theatre the next night. Those two dates kick off a nine-stop Canadian tour before she heads to Australia in February. She’s also booked for festivals in Austin (Sips & Sounds) and New York (Governors Ball) later this year.
“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time,” LeMac says over a Zoom call about playing her own headlining tour. It’ll be the first time she performs most of the new EP live.
“I feel like people are really resonating with ‘Heaven’s Sake’, so I’m excited to do that one live,” she says of the slowly building ballad that effectively uses background vocals to end on a dancey flourish. “It’s going to be really cool to have those gang vocals at the end. I’m super excited for ‘Intertwined’ as well — the energy that one brings, especially at the end of the song. I’ve just been, like, singing it in my apartment and dancing around at the end.”
Though she’s Canadian, there are large swaths of the country that LeMac hasn’t visited before.
“I’m excited to go to Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa,” she says. “I’ve never experienced what those places are like, and I, as a Canadian, have not really experienced a Canadian winter. So it’s going to be very interesting to experience that journey, too.”
As for the actual performance of it all, LeMac acknowledges she’s so early in her career as a touring musician that her live act is still maturing and developing.
“I’m still really figuring it out — 2025 was a year where I really started performing live more and it was a great experience, but it’s something I’m definitely still learning and experimenting with,” she says. “This time around I’m excited to bring energy that I haven’t before. I’m more comfortable on stage now.”
She’s also picked up tricks of the trade from others that she’s observed on the road: “Every time I’ve opened up for people or just been to festivals or concerts — I would watch people at [Lollapalooza] and Osheaga and see how they were on stage, and watching Maren Morris perform, all those kinds of things. It’s cool to see that and be able to watch and learn and take notes.”
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