#Canada

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Celebrities 1995–2002 peak

Alanis Morissette

The Canadian teen-pop star who reinvented herself as the voice of 90s female rage. Raw, oversharing, absolutely unapologetic about her feelings—she gave the decade permission to be a mess and call it art.

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Celebrities 1990–2007 peak

Céline Dion

The Quebec girl who slept in a dresser drawer, won Eurovision, and ended the decade owning the biggest song in the world. Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" topped the charts in more than 25 countries, Falling into You won Album of the Year, and then she went to Las Vegas and showed every pop star what a residency could be.

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Food 1988–1997 peak

Clearly Canadian

The sparkling flavored water in the teardrop-shaped glass bottle that made every '90s kid feel fancy. Wild Cherry, Mountain Blackberry — nursed like it was champagne.

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TV 2001–2015

Degrassi: The Next Generation

The Canadian teen drama that tackled real issues—sex, drugs, violence, identity—with frankness American TV wouldn't touch. Canadian-made, it ran 14 seasons and 385 episodes — and reached US millennials through Noggin's teen block The N, launching (among others) a young rapper-to-be named Aubrey Graham.

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Music 2001–2002

Nickelback — How You Remind Me

The opening growl — 'Never made it as a wise man' — that became the sound of 2001, and the song that proved Nickelback were simultaneously the internet's favorite punching bag and the actual soundtrack to the decade. Mathematically the most-played song of the 2000s on US radio, and everyone hated it, and everyone still knows every word.

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Music 2002

"I'm Just a Kid" by Simple Plan

Simple Plan's debut single, released February 4, 2002: a pop-punk tantrum about a Friday night with nobody to call, filmed in a Long Beach high school with DJ Qualls in tow. It never cracked the US or UK singles charts, then became the song a generation re-created its childhood photos to on TikTok in 2020.

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Celebrities 1995–2004 peak

Shania Twain

Canadian country-pop crossover sensation in leopard print and confidence. She sold albums by the tens of millions, and for a moment the whole world was her pickup-truck ballad audience.

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Celebrities 2003–2009 peak

Three Days Grace

Three guys from Norwood, Ontario whose demo of "I Hate Everything About You" got them a Jive deal and then never left rock radio: 45 weeks on the Modern Rock chart, nine-times platinum, a billion Spotify streams. Three Days Grace turned Adam Gontier's rehab notebooks into One-X and became the angst band of every mid-2000s locker.

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Celebrities 1999–2002 peak

Tom Green

A Canadian comedian and prankster whose MTV show turned everyday chaos into absurdist performance art. Tom Green built a cult following by harassing his own parents on camera, hitting No. 1 on TRL with a song about putting his bum on things, and turning a testicular cancer diagnosis into a shockingly honest TV special. He was unhinged before unhinged was a brand.