With January 2026 already halfway done, there hasn’t been many shows that have been on my radar so far.
Saturday’s Jade LeMac show at Capital Ballroom piqued my interest due to Live Nation being the promoter. I wasn’t aware of the Vancouver based singer-songwriter prior to the announcement of her ‘It’s Always at Night’ tour last fall. But with the backing of one of the largest music companies on the planet and 200-million streams of her 2021 viral hit ‘Constellations’, Jade LeMac is a young pop star on the rise.
And she’s originally form the capital region. LeMac was born and raised in Victoria till the age of 10. Her first music gig as a kid was in front of her mother’s clothing store on Johnson Street. Now 21, she returned to her original hometown Saturday night after a 2025 where she opened for Maren Morris’ tour and performing at Lollapalooza in Chicago and Osheaga in Montreal. She was recently announced as part of New York’s Governors Ball festival lineup.
Capital Ballroom was the kick off to her first solo headlining tour that will make 9 stops across Canada. LeMac took the stage looking dapper in a suit and tie around 9pm. Hearing the first few songs, it’s clear there is some Olivia Rodrigo influence to her music style with a few songs that had a ‘Drivers License’ feel to them. Unfortunately, before and during these quieter songs a number of people in the audience would not stop talking. Here’s a young woman telling the crowd why the next song is one of her favourites and there were people in Capital Ballroom not paying attention at a concert they paid money to be at. I’ll never understand why people do this.
With the Victoria show being the start of the tour, it was apparent that Jade is still finding her stage presence. She sounded great and she has nailed the fan interaction aspect, taking multiple occasions to front row fans cell phones to take a selfie or social media video clips for them and handing a pink balloon to a fan during her song ‘Pink Balloons. At times during the show, the look in her eyes felt like she was overly thinking about what she needed to do at a particular moment rather than just letting loose and letting things happen. Things will likely click for her more as the tour and her career progresses. Her overthinking may have been a factor when she briefly forgot lyrics to a song, but she recovered quickly.
LeMac definitely has a dedicated fan base that loudly sang along to her most streamed songs. After the show there was a large group of female fans gathered around the corner of the stage closest to the green room hoping for a chance to interact with Jade. That’s actually something I don’t think I’ve seen happen quite like that before at Capital Ballroom.
The show wasn’t perfect, but it’s easy to see why music industry heavyweights have confidence in her. I would not be surprised if in a year or two she’s selling out larger venues.
The tour continues with dates in Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.
Opening the night was Montreal’s Chiara Savasta. She’s another young pop artist gaining momentum having been announced in the 2026 lineup of showcases for South By Southwest. Savasta’s performance felt much more seasoned and had a bit of a Tate McRae vibe. She playfully bounded around the stage during her set and interacted with her band.
A highlight of Savasta’s show was a cover of Metric’s ‘Black Sheep’, a song made famous by Brie Larson’s performance as Envy Adams in ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’.
The one thing that bugged me during her set was that after she removed her microphone from the mic stand after the first song and went handheld the rest of the set, she never moved the mic stand out of the way.
