The Canadian Musical Terrorist Series

“We have all been terrorized, at one point, by Canadian music. Have you found yourself at the supermarket and been sideswiped by Celine Dion’s Touched by Angel? Or have you been at an airport somewhere in the world and the Muzak version of Cuts Like a Knife subtly invades your ears and then takes over your mind? Canadian musicians are engaged in the most discrete warfare of all….


In that most sparkly - most positive part of my imagination - I dream that these Can Con songs, that seep into our unconscious, are spreading the messages of queer love to the masses, especially in places where homosexuality is either a crime or secretive. For example: I envisage that Snowbird, by Anne Murray is really a song about an Iranian lesbian escaping to freedom (not really a stretch here due to the Anne Murray thing!) or that the lead singer of Nickelback is actually a radical faerie preaching pro gay messages to teen boys (cuz he kinda looks like he might be one - whatever that look is?). As for Deborah Cox – what can I say?



Through 25 new works on paper, I have portrayed only a handful of Canadian Musical terrorists/artists from Oscar Peterson to Shania Twain to Leonard Cohen and back again!! Wait ‘til you see the members of the band RUSH covered in sequins.



Join the fantasy world of Canadian Musical Terror, where the music is often too popular and possibly too boring and the pop tunes are secretly sending subliminals of positive love to all the oppressed same-sexers around the world.”





Andrew Harwood 2006-07