Megan Folden

Saskatoon-born Andrea An is a Vietnamese-Canadian singer/songwriter emerging in Saskatchewan’s music scene. An leveraged Creative Saskatchewan’s Market and Export – Micro Stream Grant to produce a music video for her song “Never Say Goodbye” in three languages: English, Korean, and Vietnamese.

“Never Say Goodbye” tells the story of a young woman who relates her relationship to the love she witnessed from her parents as a little girl. Released in March 2022, the project has amassed more than 65,000 views.

“With the help of this grant, I was able to hire my desired local videography company (Versa Films) to film my music video, “Never Say Goodbye”, which features an all-Asian cast. Releasing the song in three different languages (English, Vietnamese and Korean) captured the attention of local and national radio hosts, Viet Q Media (USA), Asian Tones (UK), playlist curators, and more.”

“The funding also allowed me to hire local company Sask Media to produce CD duplications for my debut album, “Bloom“, while utilizing ads on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to promote my music video and debut album worldwide. The Market & Export – Micro grant allowed me to take multiple steps forward in my music career, which helped me land several performance opportunities such as The SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, Taste of Saskatchewan, Regina Ribfest and several private event shows.”

“I was able to sell and ship over 40 albums in the first week of Bloom’s release, and several more at my live shows. Selling 40 physical albums may seem like a small number for some people, but as an emerging artist; it has been lifechanging to see how many people are supporting my music career. I have sold albums throughout Canada and USA, and my music has reached a wider audience throughout North America, South America, UK, South Africa, Australia and Asia.

I couldn’t be more grateful that Creative Saskatchewan lifted the financial barrier while helping me achieve my goal of providing more Asian representation within the Canadian music industry.”

Saskatchewan’s own Amy Nelson is a country music artist blazing trails at home and abroad! Nelson received a Market and Export Development grant from Creative Saskatchewan to help her promote her talents, including her music video for her song Trippin’:

“I am proud of what I accomplished through this project and with the support of this market and export grant. 

I built a strong relationship with one of Canada’s top country music labels and we are currently in talks about how we can work together moving forward. 

Through working with Open Road I was able to work with a professional graphic designer and social media expert which helped to elevate my appearance on all online platforms in a notable way. I have received many comments on how professional the branding and my overall package as an artist has now become.  

Through working with Open Road’s radio tracker, there were conversations being had about me with all of the top country radio programmers across Canada. This tracker also took care of the digital streaming platforms and introduced me as an artist to the key stake holders and decision makers for the important editorial playlists curated on these platforms. 

The views for the official music video for Trippin’ exceeded my goal in a huge way. It reached 118,714 views! The label also created a lyric video which received 91,647 views. 

With the support of Creative Saskatchewan, Trippin’ became my highest charting single in Canada, peaking at #57 on the Mediabase charts. The momentum gained through this single has helped me to secure a showcase at BreakOut West in the fall. Trippin’ had great success on Digital Streaming Platforms, being added to the following editorial playlists: 

• Live Country (Spotify) 
• Women of Country (Spotify) 
• Country Favourites (Spotify) 
• New Music Friday Canada (Spotify) 
• Canada’s Country (Apple Music) 
• New In Country (Apple Music) 
• Little Bit Country (Apple Music) 
• Country Risers (Apple Music) 
• Breakthrough Country (Amazon Music) 
• Just North of Nashville (Amazon Music) 
• Brand New Music (Amazon Music) 
• Pop & Country (YouTube Music) 
• Canadian Country Moment (YouTube Music) 
• The New Crop (YouTube Music) 

Trippin’ was quickly added to Sirius XM’s CBC Country Playlist, which will result in substantial royalties in the coming months.”

The team at Creative Saskatchewan are over the moon to see Nelson’s success!

• Learn more about Amy Nelson on her website: amynelson.ca

Arthur Slade was raised on a ranch in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan and is the author of the Amber Fang book series. Slade is also a recent grant recipient of Creative Saskatchewan’s Market & Export Development program.

Thanks to the support provided by this program, Slade was able to find great success in the online promotion the Amber Fang series. 

“The sale of the Amber Fang book led to several very positive results. The biggest result was reaching #47 on the Amazon.com store and reaching #1 in several categories on Amazon, including Young Adult Horror, Young Adult Adventure, Horror, and Vampire books… this was a very exciting achievement (that will help with future sales).

This also meant that the book sold over 1500 copies in one day (the second day of the promo), another record for any of my books. The book was also in the top 100 on Amazon.ca and the top 500 on Amazon.uk and Amazon.aus. So it really was, for that week, a worldwide success.

On top of that the Amber Fang book also made it to the top 20 on the Barnes and Noble website in the US and into the top 100 on Apple Books in Canada and the US and the top twenty on Kobo in Canada.

So overall, this was a very successful campaign. Because there were ads within the ebook, this campaign also meant that the audiobook version of Amber Fang had a jump in sales and other novels of mine also increased in sales during that week (and continue to sell).”

We’re thrilled to congratulate Slade on his success!

• Learn more about Arthur Slade on his website: arthurslade.com
• Find the Amber Fang book series on Slade’s Amazon Page here.
• Find the Amber Fang book series on goodreads here.

Saskatoon’s oldest professional theatre company, 25^th Street Theatre, returned to the stage in 2021 with the production of Fruitcake, by Saskatoon-based playwright Heather Morrison. The project was eligible for Creative Saskatchewan’s Market and Export Development grant and reaped the rewards of a solid campaign to raise their profile, reach new audiences, and drive more ticket sales.

“This marked 25th Street Theatre’s return to producing theatre outside of the Saskatoon Fringe Festival for the first time since 1999.

It was imperative that 25th Street Theatre be able to revitalize itself as a professional theatre company to ensure Fruitcake’s success, as well as the success for the company in future productions. 

This program allowed us to reach over 50,000 people across the world through social media. We were able to create high quality, professional videos, and photographs to share with our audience, giving them a behind-the-scenes look at the theatrical process. 25th Street Theatre gained nearly 200 new Followers across Instagram and Facebook and over 4,000 engagements on our videos. 

25th Street Theatre was also able to hire a publicist and social media coordinator thanks to this project. With that support, we received reviews and articles on Fruitcake from outlets like the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, CBC, CBC Radio Canada, CTV News, CFCR, and more.

This extensive media coverage supported the production by boosting our ticket sales, as well as giving 25th Street Theatre the opportunity to reiterate our history and excite the audience about our return to producing live theatre. 

It was important to 25th Street Theatre as well to have high-quality branding and artwork to share on this project. Creative Saskatchewan’s support allowed us to hire a professional artist to create media, poster, and program designs that were shared with our audience throughout this project, including a huge, 4’ x 6’ backlit poster hung outside of the performance.

Overall, Creative Saskatchewan’s support allowed 25th Street Theatre, and the production of Fruitcake, to shine for Saskatoon audiences and beyond as a grand revitalization of Saskatoon’s oldest, professional theatre company.”

Learn more about 25^th Street Theatre here.