NXNE takes place June 10-14, 2026, at venues throughout Toronto. Leading up to this year's festival, we're spotlighting some of the artists playing Billboard Canada LIVE shows this year. Loviet plays June 13 at Drake Underground in Toronto. Find the full NXNE schedule and buy passes here.
Loviet is gearing up to play her first-ever headline show in Toronto.
The rising Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based alt-rock singer is set to perform at NXNE, taking the stage at The Drake Underground on June 13. While it’s her first headline show in the city, she’s far from new to the stage.
“I feel like that's where my music is the most me,” she tells Billboard Canada over the phone from Los Angeles. “Singing and being on-stage, playing guitar, I feel like that's where I get to connect with what I do, and the audience the most.”
advertisement
She continues: “We're mostly a live band,” the artist, born Natalie MacIntosh, says. “That’s how I got my foot in the door, way before I even had a record. We've toured and played on-stage for years,” toting Lollapalooza and Riot Fest on her musical resumé.
The East Coast native reveals that she’s working on a batch of music in L.A., in the early stages of crafting a new record with U.S. collaborators. It’s a completely different process from making her latest EP, Debutante, which arrived at the end of April. It’s a candid reflection on her experiences in the music industry as a woman, penned and produced by MacIntosh.
“The record that we just released was very much self-created in a box, just me and my drummer, my only other band member,” she explains. “We really wanted to start collaborating again and just see what we could make.”
MacIntosh produced the six-track Debutante project on her own, played most of the instruments and recorded the vocals. While she wouldn’t call herself a producer — “it's such a unique title and job, and there's such an art to it,” she says — it’s still a major accomplishment.
advertisement
“It was nice to be in the driver's seat for a change, and not leaning on somebody else,” she explains. “The choices were mine and the songs were built from the ground up to create the sound I wanted.”
With her guidance, MacIntosh and her team gave each track its own identity, opting to release the songs individually, stringing them into an EP after the fact. “We really believed that each of them needed to be heard on their own,” she says. “It's another fun way to keep things fresh and keep sharing the music. These were all songs that deserved a little bit of the spotlight.”
Leaning into the freedom of standalone singles, MacIntosh put out another track, only a month after Debutante. “Can I Help You Out” is a masterclass in late ‘90s-early 2000s rock, riffing on its brash and gritty soundscapes. It could easily be slotted into a Y2K flick in the vein of American Pie, as the credits roll.
advertisement
Much of Loviet’s music is derivative of this era — including her stage name. She shares that it’s an anagram o Hole’s song “Violet, a hit from their acclaimed 1994 sophomore record, Live Through This.
Often singing about her experience as a woman in the music industry, MacIntosh has turned the personal into a universal feeling that resonates with listeners. She shares that "Cheerleader" flips the narrative of American Pie on its head, writing from the point of view of the female characters, who are often overlooked and mistreated.
“Sometimes it feels like it's just me, but the more that I write these songs and release them, the more that I feel connected to people,” she says, citing her move to Toronto as a major catalyst for her growth and confidence as an artist.
advertisement
“I [was] kind of in a bubble in Nova Scotia, but getting to be in Toronto is the dream. Seeing my heroes, all these bands that I grew up watching on Much Music, and being in the place that it all came [together].”
Unity is the focus of Loviet’s forthcoming NXNE show, her first in the city since Debutante’s release. She reveals that they’re putting the set together, often thinking about how the music will translate at her headline show.
“We love to play live," she says. "We're always going to show up and do it well. It influences a lot of what I do — just a drive to be on a stage.”
