When I first saw singer-songwriter Billianne live, I hadn’t heard anything about her yet. It was a few years ago, during a workshop at the 2024 Mariposa Folk Festival, where her powerful voice, well-written songs, and engaging stage patter left a strong impression. I saw her again later that year, opening for Donovan Woods at Massey Hall, where she was even more remarkable. I imagined it was her first time on that hallowed stage, but it was actually her third. Not bad, for a 23-year-old; certainly, she seemed to have more going for her than your average young viral phenomenon.
Though she is that, big-time. Identified as “a young Adele” by Rolling Stone, Billianne (her last name is Lowry) has emerged as a Fresh New Voice™ in recent years. Hailing from Milton, Ontario, she first gained international attention when her cover of Tina Turner’s “The Best” blew up on TikTok, with her performances on the platform earning nods from Taylor Swift, P!nk, and Oprah, among others. Since then, she’s amassed more than 100 million cumulative streams. She’s appeared on COLORS, NBC’s TODAY Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS Saturday Morning, and BBC Radio 1. And she’s toured extensively across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and the U.K., and played international festivals like Osheaga, The Great Escape, and more.
Select the image to access the video of the Billianne song “Crush”
Her debut album Modes of Transportation finds many of its protagonists travelling on buses, subways, and trains, but also, experiencing personal journeys in and out of various relationships, as they move through their lives and times. As the common lyric line in the opening song ”Modes I” and the closing one “Modes II” has it, “Everything is changing except for you.” In 10 short songs (only three are longer than 3:30), Billianne covers everything from the ecstasy of initial infatuation to the heartbreak of romantic dissolution, and several stops in between. All delivered with hooky melodies, engaging harmonies, radio pop production, and a glossy sheen, which conspire to make it a highly compelling listen. While there are ballads, folk, and rock to be found on Modes of Transportation, “Baby Blue,” “Crush,” “Wishlist,” and “Memories” might be the most instantly captivating, but simultaneously enduring, pop songs of 2025 created by anybody not named Taylor Swift.
All of the songs on the LP were co-written and co-produced with Duncan Hood and Nick Ferraro. So, how did this creative trinity get together? “Sony Music kind of took me under their wing,” says a smiling and enthusiastic Billianne. “They met up with me in their big boardroom – I think I was, like, 19, and I was very nervous to go into that room with all of them,” she laughs. “But they were very sweet, and they linked me up with Duncan and Nick. They were the first in-person writing session that I did… I met up with them in downtown Toronto, and coming from Milton, I was pretty nervous to meet them, and learn how to co-write a song with people. I’d never done that, really.”
“I found it really easy to trust them. Like, immediately.”
Co-writing is often a matter of trust, where everyone in the room can feel comfortable enough to share the kind of vulnerable insights that make for good songs. Fortunately for Billianne, it worked out with Hood and Ferraro right from the start. “I found it really easy to trust them,” she says. “Like, immediately. I never found that was something I had to learn with them. I always felt like I could just open up about anything, we could write about anything. They were relating to me, even though they’re both 10 years older than me… We were writing so easily… They’re like my older brothers.”
The trio’s collaborative process encompasses everything from lyrics and chord structure, to melodic lines and harmonies, to instrument options, to the production style and sounds. “Typically, someone has their voice note going,” says Billianne. “Once we’ve completed the lyrics, and have a good idea about what the melody is, then we start demo-ing it out.. Usually the last hour or two of a writing session is just us demo-ing… It’s good to just get it done. And also, that’s better for the music industry ears, to hear the demo, hear what instruments are going to come in where, all those things. It’s a better representation of what we’re doing. Then there’s other times, we don’t end up demo-ing things until we’re recording them… There may be a more acoustic song, just piano and voice, so it stays as an iPhone recording…
“Being credited as a co-producer was something that kind of dawned on me,” she says. “I think the term ‘producer’ gets thrown around. I meet different producers, but they all do different things. Like Nick, for example, he plays on the record a lot, he plays a lot of instruments, but he’s not typically at the computer. He’s credited as a producer; he’s making choices and decisions. Duncan’s at the computer, he’s also making choices and decisions. So, I realized, yeah, I was making choices and decisions about the music, too. So it was, ‘OK, I think I’m a producer,” she laughs. “And the guys were, like, ‘Of course you are.’”
Select the image to access the YouTube video of the Billianne song “Baby Blue”
The short, sharp pop songs on Modes of Transportation tend to move swiftly from the first verse and chorus into a vocal breakdown for the second verse, then on to the chorus again. “We’re always thinking about the arc of a song,” says Billianne. “Taking the listener on a journey. It’s the same thing as listening to a full set of music, or a full playlist. You need the peaks and the valleys. So I think, naturally, we love a little [vocal] break. And also, we love doing vocal layers… It gives us a moment to change it up for a second, refresh your ear, and prepare you to hear the same thing again.”
In July of 2025, her former tour-mate Donovan Woods told The Globe and Mail, “The power of [her voice] is what the music industry exists for. What she has is the actual hard currency of popular music.” Between Billianne’s stellar vocals, emerging songwriting, and captivating stage presence, she can likely be as famous as she wants to be. How much is that?
“Saying I want to be famous feels very weird to me; almost, maybe, shallow, or something,” she says. “I want to be able to tour, and sell out rooms… Playing shows is, like, a joy for me; one of my favourite things in the world is to play a show. I want to be able to sell out shows. So, whatever can get me there, whatever level of fame that takes, to sell out large rooms, is what I want to do.” And how large a room does she want to fill? “I don’t know that yet,” she says.