Lights is shining bright. For almost two decades, Lights has redefined what it means to be an artist — blazing across genres from alt-rock to pop to EDM, writing and drawing comics and collaborating with some of the biggest global artists. Now, she makes history as the first-ever Billboard Canada Visionary Award recipient.

Initially from a punk/alt-rock background, the artist — born Valerie Anne Poxleitner-Bokan — made her name in synth-pop, but never stopped there. Since her debut in the late 2000s, Lights has become a mainstay in Canadian music. She's had 10 songs on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 and eight charting albums on the Canadian Albums chart, including three in the top five: 2011's Siberia, 2014's Little Machines and 2017's Skin & Earth.

Lights has remained a force in the industry, with this year's A6, which put her in heavy rotation on the radio. The deluxe version, A6EXTENDED, will be released at the beginning of 2026, followed by a North American tour that will take her across the country. The newly released “Education” shows just how infectious her electro-pop can get.

Outside of music, she has used her platform to advocate for music education and mental health, becoming a voice for the next generation of rising artists. It’s an enviable career that Lights has never taken for granted.

“I’ve been professionally making music longer than I haven’t and making music in life for most of my life at this point. It’s just part of my being,” she told the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “I have the career of my dreams in that I want to squeeze every second of joy out of it.” With hundreds of millions of streams and a career built on bold creativity, she has proven herself as a true visionary.