By: Nick Gibeley
Held every August at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival gathers thousands of fans to watch over one hundred artists perform their biggest hits. First held in 2006, Osheaga has proven to be an immensely popular festival, assembling over 120,000 guests in 2022 and over 155,000 in 2023, an Osheaga record. This Wednesday morning, the official Osheaga website announced its 2024 headliners, and we are in for some fantastic shows, for sure, with SZA, Noah Kahan, and Green Day making up the weekend lineup. Each artist will bring a special energy that is sure to leave festival-goers thrilled and ready to stream.
Osheaga’s Friday headliner – the festival’s first headliner of 2024 – is Noah Kahan, a folk rock
artist who rose to fame following the release of “Hurt Somebody” in September 2017, which
reached gold status in the U.S. Since then, he has released two albums, plus a deluxe version of his third album, Stick Season, called Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever). Kahan has
collaborated with many highly popular singers, like Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone, and Hozier,
consistently showcasing his versatility and range. His most streamed songs on Spotify include
“Hurt Somebody,” with over 320 million streams, “Stick Season,” and “False Confidence.” The
Vermont native reached impressive milestones, such as being in the Top 5 Billboard Charts for
Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums, #6 on Spotify’s Weekly Top Albums in the
United States, and has even earned himself a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2024
Grammys. I’m looking forward to seeing what Kahan has to show us at Osheaga next year.
Green Day, Osheaga’s Saturday night headliner, is a band who needs no introduction. Formed in 1987 by Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, the band had a huge role in the Bay Area’s punk
scene in the 1990s, leading to four Grammy nominations in 1995, including Best New Artist,
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, Best Hard Rock Performance, and Best
Alternative Music Performance. Since then, they have gone on to have four number one albums on U.K. charts and have one of the best-selling independent albums of all time (Kerplunk, released in 1991). They are considered one of the main contributors to the popularization of punk in mainstream culture, and are consistently cited as a source of major influence by artists like Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne, and Fall Out Boy. Voted by Rolling Stones as the best punk rock band of all time and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, Green Day has made clear its impact on the music scene, and I am thrilled to see them headline Osheaga.
Finally, the Sunday headliner is SZA, who has seen an enormously successful year since the
release of her album SOS in December 2023. A highly anticipated album since the release of her 2017 debut album Ctrl, SOS debuted as Billboard’s Number 1 album, where it stayed for nine consecutive weeks. Moreover, SOS broke the record for an R&B album’s biggest streaming week of all time, and held one of the largest streaming weeks for an album by a female artist, second only to Taylor Swift’s Midnights. SOS’s biggest hits include “Kill Bill,” with over one billion streams on Spotify, “Good Days,” released as a single two years prior in December 2020, and “Snooze.” Nominated for nine 2024 Grammys (the most of anyone in the year), I think we can say that SZA dominated 2023. Other popular (and equally as incredible) SZA works include her “Kiss Me More,” in collaboration with Doja Cat, “All the Stars” with Kendrick Lamar, and two recent features on Drake’s newest album. Personally, I am a huge SZA fan and I can promise that I will be right in the crowd at Jean-Drapeau screaming the lyrics to every song (if I’m not crying tears of joy from seeing SZA in person, of course).
Osheaga will take place August 4 to August 6, and with headliners like these three, it is sure to
be a festival to remember. More news about other performers is said to be coming later in the
year.