Rêve Is Thinking Bigger

After a breakthrough hit and a JUNO Award, the Montréal-born dance-pop artist began questioning what success was asking of her. Now, with a new album on the horizon and a chance to represent Canada at Eurovision, she’s finding a renewed sense of creative freedom.

Rêve was doing everything a pop artist is supposed to do. Her breakthrough single, “CTRL + ALT + DEL,” had taken off on Canadian radio, found another audience through FIFA 22, and turned festival crowds into choirs. A JUNO Award followed.

But success had begun to complicate her relationship with making music. She was increasingly conscious of how her work might be received, and how those expectations could influence her creative decisions.

“I found myself in a position where I was spending more time thinking about how my music would be received or appeasing the machine behind it than actually enjoying the process of making it,” she tells Georgie, “which is a pretty heartbreaking place to end up when creating has been your entire life.”

That frustration sits at the centre of her new single, “Church of Sound.” The accompanying video imagines a dystopian entertainment corporation where individuality is treated as a defect to be corrected. It’s satire, though much of its inspiration comes from her own experiences navigating an industry increasingly driven by algorithms and commercial expectations.

Around the same time, Rêve was named one of five finalists hoping to represent Canada at the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest. The timing is curious for an artist who has just released a song challenging the industry’s expectations. Eurovision is, after all, one of the biggest televised pop competitions in the world.

But Eurovision has never been just another singing competition to Rêve. She’s been watching it for more than a decade.

In 2014, she saw Conchita Wurst win with “Rise Like a Phoenix” and couldn’t quite believe what she was looking at. She had grown up with Canadian Idol, The X Factor and The Voice. This was louder, stranger and considerably less interested in playing it safe.

“Here was this international stage celebrating music in so many different languages and genres, where individuality, theatrics and maximalism were celebrated,” she recalls. “I’ve always been drawn to grandeur and bold creative choices, so I fell in love pretty immediately.”

Loreen’s “Tattoo,” Dami Im’s “Sound of Silence” and JJ’s “Wasted Love” are among the performances that have stayed with her. “Since 2014, Eurovision has essentially been my Super Bowl,” she says.

Rêve grew up in Montréal in a household where music was a constant presence. Her parents, both audiophiles, introduced her to everything from classic rock and soul to disco and electronic music. Later, the city’s nightlife introduced her to another mix of influences, with European dance music and North American pop occupying much of the same cultural space.

“There’s such an intersection of European and North American influences in the city and that duality is something I’ve always felt in my own musical identity,” she says. “There’s a certain ‘joie de vivre’ at the center of Montreal culture that is also at the heart of everything I create.”

Her own music draws from contemporary pop, electronic music and ’90s Eurodance, with an affection for big choruses and the communal energy of a packed dance floor. For Rêve, the appeal has always extended beyond the physical. “I’ve always loved the idea that electronic music has the capability to move the body just as much as it moves the heart when it’s done right.”

Since making her debut in 2021, she’s amassed more than 175 million streams, with songs including “Contemporary Love,” “Big Boom” and the US Dance Radio No. 1 “Whitney.” But “CTRL + ALT + DEL” was the record that changed the scale of her career.

“We knew we’d written something special when we left the studio the night we made it, but none of us could have imagined the life it would take on after its release,” she says.

The song’s popularity became especially tangible during festival performances, when audiences began singing the lyrics back to her. With each show, the response grew louder. It was a level of connection that went well beyond radio play or streaming numbers.

Her 2023 debut album, Saturn Return, explored personal growth and transformation. Its forthcoming follow-up, Delusions of Grandeur, finds her approaching those themes with a different perspective.

“I think Saturn Return was very much about figuring out who I was, both as a person and as an artist, whereas Delusions of Grandeur is about having the conviction to actually be that person unapologetically.”

The title is both tongue-in-cheek and sincere, reflecting her complicated relationship with ambition. Rêve is interested in the fine line between believing in an improbable dream strongly enough to pursue it and allowing that same conviction to become destructive. The project reflects several years of reassessing her relationship with success.

“I’ve become much less interested in making the ‘right’ choices and much more interested in making choices that feel true and interesting to me,” she says.

That shift is central to “Church of Sound.” What began as frustration with an industry increasingly preoccupied with commercial performance became an opportunity to reconnect with the creative instincts that first drew her to music.

“‘Church of Sound’ came out of that frustration, but more importantly, out of finding my way back to the joy of making music on my own terms.”

Eurovision, of course, comes with its own rules, expectations and considerable commercial machinery. But what appeals to Rêve is the creative freedom within those constraints. A good song is only part of the equation. With three minutes to work with, an artist can build an entire world through sound, movement, fashion and staging.

“One of the things I love most about Eurovision is that it’s not just about writing a great song,” she says. “It’s about creating an entire world around those three minutes and finding a way to tell a story through music, visuals, movement and performance.”

Canada’s selection process has an unusual distinction: the public is choosing the artist before the song that will represent the country has been selected. Rêve is among five finalists, alongside William Cloutier, Josiane, TALK and Tyler Shaw, with the eventual representative heading to Bulgaria in May 2027.

“It’s super exciting, and I think there’s something really beautiful about Canadians getting to have a say in who tells a part of our story on that stage for the first time,” she says.

For Rêve, the possibilities have been occupying her thoughts since Canada confirmed its participation in July. She imagines an entry rooted in contemporary electronic pop and ’90s Eurodance, drawing on the sounds that have shaped her career while embracing the theatrical scale of Eurovision.

The prospect of incorporating both English and French is particularly meaningful. As a French Canadian artist, she sees an opportunity to bring that part of her identity to an international audience. But she doesn’t believe representing Canada means trying to capture its musical identity in a single sound.

“I think I’d want to challenge the idea that Canadian music can be defined by any one sound or identity,” she says. “I think the biggest strength of Canadian music is that we are SO many things.”

For Rêve, the opportunity is also deeply personal. As a Canadian, French Canadian and queer artist, Eurovision represents a space where the qualities that make an artist different can become their greatest strengths.

“I’ve watched this competition religiously for over a decade, never imagining that representing my own country could actually be a possibility,” she says. “The idea of getting to bring everything I’ve learned, both as a fan and artist, let alone to represent my country at what can only be described as the Olympics of music, would be the greatest privilege of my career.”

Beyond the performance itself, she hopes her participation could resonate with younger Canadians who have struggled to find their place.

“I also hope that if given the opportunity, my performance would inspire young Canadians who have at one point or another felt like they didn’t fit in, or that they’re too ‘out there’, to be proud of exactly who they are and to celebrate every stitch of their individuality.”

“Eurovision aside, that is my exact artistic ethos.”

Rêve has spent years performing across Canada and developing a relationship with audiences through music designed to make people feel something. Eurovision would allow her to take that approach considerably further. She’s already thinking about the production, choreography, costumes and staging, and the work involved in making three minutes leave a lasting impression.

“If I’m given the opportunity, I can promise that every detail, from the songwriting and production to the choreography, staging and costuming, would be something I’d obsess over,” she says. “I’d like to bring a performance to the stage in Bulgaria that Canadians could feel genuinely proud to call their own.”

Rêve’s next album is called Delusions of Grandeur. Twelve years after discovering Eurovision on television, she’s now in contention to represent Canada at the competition she’s spent much of her career admiring. The ambition is considerable, but she doesn’t seem interested in approaching it any other way.

“I believe that if you’re going to do something, you might as well really go for it,” she says.

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Vote for Rêve: Canadians can vote up to 10 times at CBC.ca/eurovision. Voting closes Thursday, November 5, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT.