There’s a lot of emerging country music talent in Canada, which makes the SiriusXM Top of the Country contest an impressive campaign in a couple of ways.

1) It’s impressive that the committee in charge of making the decisions from the initial submissions is able to whittle the list down to eight semi-finalists.

2) None of the artists that make the semi-finals (and then the finals from there) are misses. These are all talented folks and they showed it during the SiriusXM Top of the Country 2020 Semi-Finalist Showcase on Friday night before the Canadian Country Music Association Awards this Sunday night.

Now, just like everything else in 2020, things are different with the Top of the Country contest this time around. Instead of already being down to finalists and crowning a new winner at Canadian Country Music Week, things are being stretched out, and the 2020 semi-finalists will all stick around until 2021, and the winner will be named before the CCMA Awards in London, ON.

The pandemic also meant that the 2020 showcase moved online, giving all eight artists a chance to perform a song before MacKenzie Porter joined the party to headline the show.

Hosted by SiriusXM’s Jeff Leake on the CCMA YouTube channel, the showcase saw all of the semi-finalists show why they made it this far in the competition. Most of the artists (Don Amero, Raquel Cole, Nate Hall, Brittany Kennell, Tyler Joe Miller) performed solo acoustic songs, while Kaley Kulyk sang while playing the piano, and Kelly Prescott and Carolina East each had an accompanying guitarist.

Some of the artists and songs may be more familiar to fans than others, and that’s fine. Tyler Joe Miller earned his first #1 single with Pillow Talkin’ earlier this year (and is nominated for the Rising Star award at the CCMAs), Kelly Prescott (Love Wins) and Kalsey Kulyk (self-titled) are both nominated for CCMA Roots Album of the Year, Don Amero has Juno nominations in his career, Brittany Kennell is the only Canadian to have competed on The Voice (Team Blake, 2016), Carolina East has been nominated multiple times at the Indigenous Music Awards, Raquel Cole was the 2015 CCMA Discovery Award winner, and if you’ve seen The Reklaws, Kira Isabella, or a number of other Canadian country artists live, you’ve likely seen Nate Hall up on stage playing and singing.

On Friday night, each of these artists stripped things down and showed the talent that has earned them all of the praise and acclaim they’ve received so far, and that will take them to the next steps in their careers, whatever those may be. And even though I was at home on my couch, watching on a small screen and listening through headphones, it felt like a showcase. It felt good. It sounded good. And it allowed talented Canadian artists to shine.

And then, as the added bonus after the semi-finalists finished, MacKenzie Porter headlined the show with a three-song mini-set.

With three consecutive #1 singles (About You, These Days, Seeing Other People), three 2020 Canadian Country Music Association award nominations (Fans’ Choice, Female Artist, Songwriter of the Year), and a brand new single, Drinkin’ Songs, Porter has had a run of awesome success and explosion in her music career.

Along with her backing guitarists/vocalists, MacKenzie played an acoustic set that was both entertaining and a reminder of why we were so excited when she started releasing new music again in 2018 after more than three years away. It’s one thing to hear her on the radio or to talk about the historic achievement of reaching #1 three times in a row as a woman in Canadian country music, but to hear her sing stripped-down versions of her songs and let her talent shine in a spotlight is even more special.

Across Seeing Other People, Drinkin’ Songs, and These Days, MacKenzie showed that she’s a star. And while it is not easy to look at the list of Female Artist of the Year nominees in 2020 and try to pick a winner, there’s no doubt at all that she belongs in that conversation and we can’t wait to see how things turn out during the CCMA Awards broadcast on Sunday night.

Now, I wish the set had been six songs instead of three. I would have loved to hear About You, Drive Thru, and even for her to have gone back to sing either Rodeo or If You Ask Me To. But that’s just me being greedy.

It feels like there’s a lot more to come from MacKenzie Porter, and we can’t wait to see it!

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SiriusXM Top of the Country 2020 Semi-Finalist Showcase Setlist

★ Wasn’t The Dress (Don Amero)
★ Hate That I Need You (Raquel Cole)
★ Coping (Carolina East)
★ Take My Name (Nate Hall)
★ Drunk Lips (Brittany Kennell)
★ Who I Was (Kalsey Kulyk)
★ I Would Be Over Me Too (Tyler Joe Miller)
★ Love Wins (Kelly Prescott)
★ Seeing Other People (MacKenzie Porter)
★ Drinkin’ Songs (MacKenzie Porter)
★ These Days (MacKenzie Porter)

Hit play to watch the complete SiriusXM Top of the Country 2020 Semi-Finalist Showcase now!

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Joshua Murray

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