Northern Dial Artist Profile

Ria Mae

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax singer-songwriter Ria Mae developed through Atlantic Canada's independent music circuit before moving decisively toward pop. Her early album Under Your Skin earned East Coast recognition and established her as a songwriter first, but the major national breakthrough came after she began working with Halifax rapper and producer Classified. Their collaboration "Clothes Off" became a platinum Canadian hit and earned a JUNO nomination for Single of the Year, giving Mae the platform for a much larger radio audience.

Her 2016 major-label album sharpened that pop direction with "Clothes Off" and the gold-certified "Ooh Love." The My Love EP followed, while "Bend" became another platinum single and reached the upper tier of Canadian radio. Mae toured with artists including Tegan and Sara, Dido and Scott Helman, and her catalogue increasingly balanced direct pop hooks with the personal perspective that had shaped her earlier singer-songwriter work. Songs such as "Girlfriend" also made queer identity more explicit within that mainstream-pop setting.

By the mid-2020s, Mae had accumulated three JUNO nominations, multiple East Coast Music Awards and tens of millions of streams while remaining closely tied to Halifax's collaborative music culture. Her 2025 album Two and 2026 Classified collaboration "In the Stars" extended a career that has consistently moved between Atlantic Canadian roots and national pop radio. Mae matters as one of the artists who helped demonstrate that polished contemporary pop could emerge from Halifax without severing its connection to the city's independent songwriting community.