It’s Valentine’s Day and the CBC’s Jennifer Van Evra has thoughtfully compiled this Maple music collection to get us thinking about romantic interludes and loves past and present.
The sultry, dance-pop track follows up her francophone single “Tant pis pour elle,” continuing a new era for the Quebec-born, Paris-based singer.
Charlotte Cardin likes to touch.
Today (March 13), the Quebec-born, Paris-based singer dropped her latest single, “The Way We Touch.” A well-known bilingual artist with hits in both of Canada's official languages, the song marks Cardin’s return to singing in English, following 2024’s A Week in Nashville EP.
“The Way We Touch” is a sultry, upbeat moment that unfolds like a wave that’s breaking free. Supported by a smouldering saxophone, the track oozes with sensuality and a hypnotic groove. Co-written and produced in Montreal with longtime collaborators Jason Brando and Sam Avant, the song is playful and powerful, driven by a passionate tension throughout its three-minute runtime.
"This song takes me back to the times when my sister and I filmed our own music videos with the family VHS camera, wearing my mother's jewelry,” Cardin said in a statement. “It's both playful and liberating, and it reconnects me to the very place where my love for music began.”
A mere month ago, Cardin started teasing the track on social media, building up momentum amongst her cross-continental fanbase. While the final product is drenched in dance-pop soundscapes, she initially introduced it as an acoustic-laden number.
The release of “The Way We Touch” follows the singer’s major win at 2026’s Victoires de la Musique, a prestigious French award show where she took home the female artist of the year trophy, making Cardin the first Quebecer to receive the accolade since 2003. She remains the only artist to win that award and artist of the year at the Juno Awards, an achievement that illustrates her international reach.
The track co-signs a new era for Cardin, who released the first taste of new music, with the razor-sharp “Tant pis pour elle” last September. Effortlessly straddling the country’s two official languages, the single showcased Cardin’s French pop chops, leaning into her newfound home in Paris. It landed on the Billboard Canada AC Airplay chart and the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, peaking at No. 89 on the latter chart.
While she has made waves in Canada and Europe, Cardin scored her first U.S. chart entry, as her hit “Confetti” — which peaked at No. 10 in Canada — debuted on the Billboard Adult Pop Airplay chart, remaining there for 16 weeks. Last March, Cardin was Billboard’s Global Woman of the Year recipient.
"Being able to export my music makes me feel so good,“ she told Billboard Canada in a cover story. “It's even the thing that makes me the happiest. Ever since I was little, I wanted to make [music] my career, and it makes me even happier to know that it can do good for other people.”
While no plans have been set for Cardin’s next album, it will follow up on the singer’s 2023 release, 99 Nights, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart.
Watch “The Way We Touch” music video:
Listen here:
