A rising star on the francophone music scene will be at Harbourfront Centre for a celebration of all things Canadian. Kelly Bado will be the the Stage in the Park (235 Queens Quay West) from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on July 1 as part of the free annual Canada Day festivities.
The Winnipeg-based Bado was born in Côte d’Ivoire and moved to Manitoba as a student. She blends African rhythms into soulfully slick pop compositions, most notably on her second full-length album, Belles Âmes, which was released last year.
A prime example is the opening track, the upbeat “Jamais oublier” (Never forget). Shot in her African birthplace of Abidjan, it displays some of the city’s magnificent beaches.
Check out the beautiful beaches in Kelly Bado’s Official Music Video for “Jamais oublier”.
Diyet & the Love Soldiers follow Bado
The album was produced by Brian West, a Grammy nominee and Juno winner who previously worked with Nelly Furtado, K’NAAN, Sia, and Maroon 5. For her efforts, Bado received the 2026 Kevin Walter Memorial Songwriter Award, as well the Global Artist of the Year 2025 at the Western Canadian Music Awards.
Bado will be followed on the same stage at 5 p.m. by Diyet & the Love Soldiers, which blends alt-country with traditional Indigenous music. Singer Diyet van Lieshout hails from the Yukon. And she was honoured as Indigenous Songwriter of the Year at the 15th Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Diyet is a member of the Kulane First Nation and has Japanese, Scottish, Tlingit, and Southern Tutchone ancestry. Her husband, Robert van Lieshout, is the band’s guitarist. Their first album release as a band came with the eponymous Diyet & the Love Soldiers. However, Diyet had previously released the solo albums The Breaking Point and When You Were King.
This year, the band released the “Seeds of Dreaming” EP. Listen to the title track below.
Diyet van Lieshout calls “Seeds of Dreaming” her most personal song to date.
Moskitto Bar marries sounds of the world
Then at 7 p.m. at the Stage in the Park, Toronto-based Moskitto Bar will perform its cross-cultural smorgasbord of music while collaborating with guest vocalists.
“Their sound draws from French chanson, Balkan folk rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and South American grooves, woven together with elements of jazz, swing and improvisation,” the Harbourfront Cebntre website states.
In the past, Moskitto Bar has added to the fun with traditional and contemporary dance as well as a circus performance.
Moskitto Bar performs Tangi Lion’s “turban” at the 2025 Blueskies Festival.
For more information on Harbourfront Centre’s Canada Day celebrations, visit the website. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
