Nelly Furtado, Tragically Hip join Boi-1da for Canada's 'competitive' World Cup album

Boi-1da, Nelly Furtado and Alessia Cara pose with members of Canada's men's national soccer team in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Canada Soccer(Mandatory Credit)

When Boi-1da was first approached about a World Cup soundtrack by Canada Soccer, the brief was simple: a few songs to accompany the 2026 FIFA tournament.

He quickly pushed for something much bigger.

“There’s just too much talent out here to just showcase one, two, three artists,” says the Grammy-winning Toronto producer behind some of Drake’s biggest hits.

Beyond scale, there was another idea driving him: competition.

With other nations releasing their own World Cup anthems, Boi-1da saw an opportunity to show that Canada could go toe-to-toe with anyone.

“I want to make songs that compete with other countries that are making songs too, just to show them that Canada’s the best,” he says.

“We have the biggest artists in the world. We have the best artists ever.”

That mindset informed “What If It All Goes Right?” — an all-Canadian, genre-spanning album featuring pop icon Nelly Furtado, rock vets the Tragically Hip and a stacked roster of established and emerging talent, including Alessia Cara, Jessie Reyez and NorthSideBenji.

Out Friday, the album is ostensibly meant to rally Team Canada as it prepares for its first-ever World Cup match on home soil on June 12.

But Boi-1da also sees it as something of a statement about Canada’s diversity and its place in the global cultural conversation.

“It represents who we are, Canada, as people. We’re a bunch of different cultures who all mesh into each other,” he says.

Take “Born Winner,” for instance — a propulsive Afrobeats anthem featuring French vocals from Ottawa-based artist Joe Gez and Edmonton R&B singer Frvrfriday, as well as Punjabi verses from B.C. singer-rapper AP Dhillon.

That cross-cultural collaboration is all over the album, and feels especially resonant after recent debate over Toronto’s — and by extension, Canada’s — sonic identity.

During Drake’s high-profile feud with Kendrick Lamar in 2024, U.S. radio personality Ebro Darden made headlines after suggesting Toronto lacks a distinct regional sound compared with cities like Atlanta or Compton.

Boi-1da rejects that framing outright.

“Nonsense,” he says.

He argues outsiders often misunderstand how deeply integrated different cultures and sounds are in Canadian life.

“I came up with Drake and hearing people say (he’s a) culture vulture, they don’t understand Toronto and Canada and how diverse it is,” says Boi-1da, who produced two songs on the rapper’s new album “Iceman.”

“You can go to a party in Canada and you can hear seven different genres of music and everybody knows it.”

“There’s Africans, there’s Italians, there’s Indians, there’re West Indians, there’s everything here, and we listen to everything. And that’s why we’re so tapped in,” he adds.

The album features several artists who have helped shape Canadian music — Boi-1da says Furtado is someone he grew up dreaming of collaborating with. The singer’s track “Electric Circus” is her first single since announcing she was stepping away from performing last fall.

“It’s Nelly Furtado, man. She can never be done,” he says. “She’s just one of those artists that, whenever she feels like it, she can just snap right back in. It’s embedded in her.”

He says the synth-heavy electronica number has a “gritty, underground, ’90s feel” and that they watched old clips of the iconic MuchMusic live dance show “Electric Circus” while working on it.

That Cancon nostalgia runs throughout the project — “Sucks to Be You,” featuring Toronto-born alt-pop artist Sophie Powers, interpolates the hook from Canadian pop duo Prozzäk’s 1998 hit of the same name.

“I grew up listening to that song — that was a song that was just stuck in your head,” says Boi-1da, noting Prozzäk approved his nod to their tune and that “they loved it.”

Boi-1da says the Tragically Hip also gave him free rein over their catalogue to remake one of their songs.

“They sent me the original tracks, vocals, instruments and everything,” he says. “I had to take my time with it. I had to make sure I made the most tasteful thing I could make because the Hip, they really mean something to Canada.”

Boi-1da wound up reimagining “Ahead by a Century” as a haunting, slow-burning ballad, with City and Colour’s Dallas Green and Métis singer-songwriter Ruby Waters wistfully harmonizing on it.

He notes Green felt like a significant choice since he collaborated with the Hip’s late frontman Gord Downie — on City and Colour’s 2008 hit “Sleeping Sickness” — while Waters represented the next generation of Canadian talent.

The album is being presented via Perfect Pitch, Canada Soccer’s national music ambassador program, with proceeds going to its foundation benefiting youth soccer programs.

A self-described “soccer dad” — his daughter is a striker in the Ontario Provincial Development League – Boi-1da says he’s particularly invested in the sport.

But he says the music and sports are ultimately just pieces of a broader surge of national momentum.

“Canada is up, up, up right now,” he says.

“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA’s back-to-back MVP. We’ve got ‘Iceman’ out. We’ve got the World Cup in Canada,” he says.

“Our boys are going to go do some damage out there. I can feel it.”

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press