Lights is making history as the first-ever recipient of the Billboard Canada Visionary Award.
For nearly 20 years, Lights has redefined what it means to be an artist — blazing across genres from pop to EDM to alt-rock, writing form-blending comics and collaborating with some of the biggest artists across the world. With hundreds of millions of streams and a career built on bold creativity, she has proven herself as a true visionary in Canadian music.
The Visionary Award has been given twice by Billboard, to Lana Del Rey in 2023 and Maren Morris in 2024, and this will be the first time the award will be presented in Canada.
Lights will accept the award at Billboard Canada Women in Music on October 1, 2025, at Rebel in Toronto.
Since debuting in her early 20s in the late 2000s, the artist born Valerie Anne Poxleitner-Bokan has had an enviable career that has transcended genres. She's had 10 songs that have charted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, ranging from 2008's "Drive My Soul" to 2019's "Love Me" and 8 different charting albums on the Canadian Albums chart, including three in the top 5: 2011's Siberia, 2014's Little Machines and 2017's Skin & Earth. She's remained intensely prolific, with this year's A6 continuing to put her in heavy rotation on radio.
Starting from a punk/alt-rock background, she made her name in synth-pop — but never stopped there. She's collaborated with artists across genres, including electronic music stars like Kaskade, Steve Aoki and deadmau5 (who she's toured and collaborated with both on record and in spectacular live appearances) as well as rock-stars like Travis Brker and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. "Love Me," her collab with Canadian DJ Felix Cartal, even spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Canada Emerging Artists chart.
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In the meantime, she's used her platform to advocate for music education and mental health, becoming a voice for the next generation of rising artists.
"It's rare for an artist, Canadian or otherwise, to capture such longevity and acclaim over such a prolonged period," says Billboard Canada National Editor Richard Trapunski. "Lights has done it without ever relying on reputation or nostalgia, always pushing forward and doing things her own way."
Lights is the second award recipient announced for Billboard Canada Women in Music 2025. The Beaches will accept the Women of the Year Award as part of a major breakout year that continues to bring them to even bigger stages. The band were recently announced as this year's winners by last year's Woman of the Year winner Charlotte Cardin.
Expect more big announcements of award winners, presenters and performers leading up to the Billboard Canada Women in Music 2025 celebration on October 1, 2025, at Toronto's Rebel. A limited number of tickets are available to the public here.
