ON AN EARLY afternoon in July, singer-songwriter Billianne is sitting at home in Milton, Ontario, surrounded by the green walls of the house she shares with her parents. These days, her life has been changing so much that she’s been dreaming of moving — she’s been playing with the idea of going to Toronto, a place she loves.
“I feel a bit of a broken record,” says Billianne. “I tell everyone I want to move to Toronto really badly. I want to live there. To me, that’s like where everything’s happening. And every time I go, I feel like I make new friends.”
The 22-year-old Canadian folk-pop sensation, who’s been described as a “young Adele” and draws inspiration from everyone from Shania Twain and Cyndi Lauper to Ryan Beatty’s Calico album, has found herself going places more and more these days as she gears up to release her debut album, Modes of Transportation, due Aug. 15.
“So much of this first portion of stepping into the music industry for me has been taking planes for the first time, being on flights, and taking trains to downtown Toronto,” Billianne says of the album, which she’s been writing for years. “All these new things where every time I go and come back home, I feel different. That is kind of a lyrical thread throughout everything.” more
Things have been moving quickly for the singer: In October 2021, she was catsitting for her aunt, finger-picking on her guitar. Then, an intimate acoustic cover of Tina Turner’s “The Best” she’d been practicing went viral. The tender performance, which garnered millions of views, was a nod to Noah Reid’s on-screen cover on Schitt’s Creek.
Modes of Transportation dives into more of what she can do. Produced and written by Billianne and her collaborators Nick Ferraro and Duncan Hood, the project features 10 sweeping tracks of polished pop, goosebump-raising, strings-heavy folk guitar ballads, and the kind of music that elicits dance moves in the kitchen, wooden utensil microphones and all. Already, the album has been connecting with people. “Crush,” the LP’s sleek, glossy single that evokes young-love bliss, gave Billianne her first Top 10 hit on Canadian Top 40 Radio. Billianne explains she was “definitely hesitant and nervous” to release “Crush,” explaining the departure from the folky Turner cover that made her famous.
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“I was like hopefully people will come along for the ride and enjoy this side of me because it’s something I love, so I just hoped that if they got me and got my voice, they would get every single thing I’m doing. I always try to keep that in my mind, throughout the whole process of this album, and they so far have.”
BILLIANNE’S VIRAL “THE Best” video was an early indicator of what was to follow. Since posting her cover, her tracks have earned her over 100 millions streams around the world, also helping her secure spots on the road KT Tunstall, Julia Jacklin, and Half Moon Run. Plus, there have been appearances on talk shows, from CBS Saturday Morning to The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I grew up on American Idol,” she says. “That was one of our TV nights. We would watch that show. I used to think I’d end up doing American Idol. Now, I don’t think that’s part of my plan.”
Clarkson isn’t the only celebrity who’s found Billianne’s music. The songwriter’s videos and songs have reached everyone from Joe Jonas to Noah Kahan (“You have an amazing voice wow,” Kahan wrote on a 2022 video of Billianne covering “Cleopatra” by The Lumineers). John Mayer has played Billianne’s music on his radio show. Reese Witherspoon commented on her Kelly Clarkson Show performance, writing “WOW!! The most soulful voice .. New Fan alert,” followed by a siren emoji. Taylor Swift has even noticed and commented on a video, after Billianne posted a cover of her doing one of Swift’s songs “Labyrinth.”
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Now, Billianne’s plans consist of touring the world after dropping her album, playing venues like the Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles and Public Records in Brooklyn, New York. This time, Billianne’s also taking her entire band for the trek.
“I’m really excited to do that and make this album basically come to life for the first time and be able to play whatever I want for however long I want,” Billianne says. “That’s also cool about headline tours – you can do whatever you want … obviously there’s curfews. We’ll be out of there before then. But until that point, I can do whatever I want.”
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Billianne says she hopes the LP “does really well and wants people to “understand what I’m trying to say — that’s my hope right now. And then obviously there’s the big dreams I have too of like, I want people to know me, to know Billianne. It feels so weird to say that kind of stuff out loud, but I do.”
She continues: “I want to be known and I want people to find my music and also grow with me because it’s only my first album — there’s so much more to come and I feel like I’m already writing new songs. I’m excited for the future and I just hope people find it and then stick along for the ride.”