Canadian dance-pop artist Rêve is vying for the chance to share her love of the dance floor with the world. Last week, she was announced as one of five finalists in the running to represent Canada at Eurovision, the world’s longest-running song competition. 

You probably recognize Rêve from her JUNO-winning breakout song, CTRL + ALT + DEL, a big hit on Canadian radio in 2022. She’s amassed over 175 million streams globally, opened for acts like Cindy Lauper, The Black Eyed Peas, and Nelly Furtado, and was nominated for a JUNO for her debut album, Saturn Return. This is the first year that Canada will send a participant to Eurovision, and as a long-time fan of the competition, the Montreal-born-and-raised artist is hopeful that voters will allow her to bring the city’s famous “joie de vivre” to viewers worldwide.

With an infectious new song, Church of Sound, out now, and her sophomore album, Delusions of Grandeur, coming soon, we caught up with Rêve to hear more about her Eurovision dreams, her roots in Montreal, and how a night out on Church Street inspired one of her songs. 

What would it mean to you to represent Canada at Eurovision?

It would mean the absolute world to me. I’ve been a fan of Eurovision for 12 years. It is my Super Bowl every year. I understand the history. I understand the weight of that opportunity. What performs well on that stage. And also, Eurovision being the Olympics of music—to be the first ever entry to represent Canada on the world stage is an honour of a lifetime. I get choked up even thinking about that because who gets to say that? And whoever does out of the five finalists, we’re going to be so proud of whoever that is. The fact that Canada is even eligible this year is a huge win. It’s historic. It’s a tile in the mosaic of an already rich history of Eurovision. It would just mean the world. 

Talk us through your journey as an artist—where did your love of music first start?

I grew up in Montreal, which is a city where what we call “joie de vivre” is at the center of everything. I grew up in a home that was extremely musical. I had two audiophiles for parents who had instruments around the house, and there was always a record playing. Growing up, obviously, music was a huge outlet for me, and then I played in bars and restaurants around the city in Montreal. Anybody who would let me sing at a piano, I would do it. I would do it for free. I would do it for two drink tickets. I would lug my keyboard up icy steps if it meant that I could just sing for an hour in front of people. And then it was years of saying yes to collaborations and sessions, working in a wedding band, and then finally in 2020, I moved to Toronto with $600 in my bank account and took the gamble of my life, and I’m really glad I did.


You had your breakout moment with CTRL + ALT + DEL in 2022—how have you grown as an artist in the years since then?

We could have never imagined the life that it would take on after. It started on Canadian radio, it was synced in FIFA 2022, it was on Canada’s Drag Race, it won me my first JUNO, so that record has taken me on the ride of my life. My artistry has changed a little bit since the release of that because I’m less focused now on what I think will become a hit, or trying to replicate the success of CTRL. My focus has shifted to making sure that my “why” is present in everything that I do. What’s the message that I want to tell? What environment do I want to create for my listeners, and what do I really stand for as an artist? This next album that I’ve been working on, Delusions of Grandeur, there’s really a message behind it. Every lyric is super intentional, and I’m just really proud of my focus shifting to that. 

We love your new song, Church of Sound. Can you tell us about your vision for that song? 

Church of Sound was written during a time when I was in a business partnership that I felt wasn’t allowing me to express, and I felt extremely stifled. The music industry has changed so much over the last couple of years. Artist development is non-existent, unfortunately, and when there’s a bigger machine behind you, they’re looking at metrics and algorithms instead of sometimes the art itself, and that’s really disheartening as somebody who creates as their life force. Church of Sound was an expression of frustration and yearning for some sort of liberation from that feeling, and I’m happy to say that here we are a year later, and I’m out of it.


Can you speak to the role your queer identity plays in your music, like in your songs Tongue and Devour? 

I’m a proud bisexual woman. I’m so grateful to be a part of this community. I actually came out via song with my song Tongue in 2022, which Lemon was later featured on. I was so lucky that after I released the song, I got connected to these amazing people in the queer community globally. Devour was a song that was inspired by my drag king and drag queen friends. When I was going through that really difficult time last year, where I felt stifled creatively, I was candidly in a depression. I didn’t want to get out of bed a lot of days, and my friends in the community were like, “Just come out to a show.” And I’m like, “You know what? Let me put on my heels. I’m gonna put my hair packs in and get out to Church Street.” And it worked wonders. I remember one night specifically, just sitting there in Woody’s and being like, “Yeah, this is what it’s all about.” Like, look at my friends standing up there in their power, just absolutely the picture of confidence and fierceness. I hadn’t written a song at that point in a few months because nothing was coming to me.  I got into the studio the next week, and I just thought about that night. And I’m like, okay, if I wanted to channel the energy of my friends in drag, like, what would they say? And Devour was born. 

Let’s talk about the new album! What can we expect from Delusions of Grandeur? 

I’ve been having a blast building this album. You still get classic Rêve in there. You have your disco influence, but this time it leans a little bit more French House. There’s still that Stuart Price influence, but then new influences this time are Justice and Daft Punk. So you have that sexy, grungy, disco flavour, but also a dirtier, edgy sound. It’s a highly visual album. After we’d written the first six songs for it, I made a deck that’s 36 pages long, where I’ve created this fictitious place, all of the characters that exist in this world, what their storylines are, to bring out this visual world as this album rolls out. Thematically, Delusions of Grandeur is about walking the tightrope of delusions. I really think that you have to be a little bit delusional to chase your dreams sometimes because there is no formula. So it’s really about the balance between delusion being used as a tool to pave the path to your dreams, but not letting it tip over to the other side to the point where it leads to your downfall. So the album explores the journey and the messiness of that.

Voting to select the performer who will represent Canada at the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest closes Thursday, Nov 5 at 11:59pm PT. Votes can be cast at  cbc.ca/eurovision.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.