The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the musical centre of the Canadian Prairie Provinces of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

 and Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, having produced artists like Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, The Guess Who

The Guess Who

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, Crash Test Dummies

Crash Test Dummies

The Crash Test Dummies is a Canadian folk rock/alternative rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, widely known for their 1993 single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm".The band is most identifiable through Brad Roberts and his distinctive bass-baritone voice...

, Fresh City, and many others. Country music continues to be popular in all three provinces.
The Western Canadian Music Awards have been created to showcase artists from these provinces.

The Rough Guide to World Music notes that in the Prairie Provinces, "no Ukrainian

Ukrainian Canadian

A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...

 wedding band is complete without a tsymbaly

Tsymbaly

The tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....

, and a small local recording industry there continues to produce cassettes of hybrid troista-country bands" (emphasis in original). Ukrainian influences on the music can be seen in modern English-language polka numbers like Giants of the Prairies

Giants of the Prairies

Giants of the Prairies is a song by the Canadian polka band, the Kubasonics.It tells the story of the numerous "world's biggest" roadside attractions to be found in Western Canada, especially in small towns populated mostly by Ukrainian Canadians....

by the Kubasonics.

Popular music

Rock bands include The Weakerthans

The Weakerthans

The Weakerthans are a four-piece Canadian indie rock band.-History:The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. Samson joined forces with bassist John P...

, The Guess Who

The Guess Who

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

, Tom Cochrane

Tom Cochrane

Tom Cochrane, OC Canadian musician and humanitarian, best known for his hit songs "Life Is a Highway", "Lunatic Fringe", "Human Race" and "I Wish You Well". Cochrane fronted the Canadian rock band Red Rider and has won seven Juno Awards...

, The Watchmen

The Watchmen

The Watchmen is a Canadian rock band. They were one of the most commercially successful Canadian alternative rock groups of the mid to late 1990s. During their peak years the band had three gold records and one platinum record...

, Wide Mouth Mason

Wide Mouth Mason

Wide Mouth Mason is a Canadian blues-based rock band, consisting of Shaun Verreault , Safwan Javed , and Gordie Johnson . Former bassist Earl Pereira was also co-founder of Wide Mouth Mason...

, Nickelback

Nickelback

Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger.. The band's current drummer and percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band since 2005....

, The Rural Alberta Advantage

The Rural Alberta Advantage

The Rural Alberta Advantage is a Canadian indie rock band that formed in 2005. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the band consists of Nils Edenloff on lead vocals and guitar, Amy Cole on backing vocals and keyboard, and Paul Banwatt on drums....

 and Chantal Kreviazuk

Chantal Kreviazuk

Chantal Jennifer Kreviazuk is a Canadian singer-songwriter of the adult contemporary music genre. She is also a classically trained pianist, and can play the guitar.-Albums:...

.

Aside from country, pop and rock performers, the Prairie Provinces have produced singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

s such as Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...

, Jann Arden

Jann Arden

Jann Arden is a Canadian singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Arden was born and raised near Calgary in Springbank, Alberta and attended Springbank Community High School. Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You"...

, Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, Eamon McGrath

Eamon McGrath

Eamon McGrath is a folk music and punk rock musician from Edmonton, Alberta and currently based in Toronto. On his own, his live performances are most often folk-oriented, where McGrath plays songs from his discography on acoustic instruments, but with a band the live show takes on a much more...

, Burton Cummings

Burton Cummings

Burton L. Cummings, OC, OM is a Canadian musician and songwriter.He was the lead singer and frequent keyboardist for the Canadian rock band The Guess Who...

, Connie Kaldor

Connie Kaldor

Connie Isabelle Kaldor, is a Canadian folk singer/songwriter. She is the recipient of three Juno awards.Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, she graduated from Campbell Collegiate in Regina in 1972 and the University of Alberta in 1976 with a BFA degree in theatre...

, Carolyn Dawn Johnson

Carolyn Dawn Johnson

Carolyn Dawn Johnson is a Canadian Juno Award winning country music singer-songwriter. Johnson first rose to fame by co-writing Chely Wright's 1999 Number One single, "Single White Female," which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in September 1999...

, Feist, Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin . Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs.-History:...

, k.d. lang

K.D. Lang

Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...

, Sierra Noble, Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson CM, AOE is a Canadian singer-songwriter, best known for his song "Four Strong Winds". He was also one half of the duo Ian & Sylvia.-Career:Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C...

 and Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

, as well as folk acts such as Andrea Menard

Andrea Menard

Andrea Menard is a Canadian actress, playwright, and jazz singer, born in 1971 in Flin Flon, Manitoba and based in Saskatchewan.-Career:Menard, who is of Métis descent, is best known for her work on the television series Moccasin Flats and for her starring role as...

, Don Freed

Don Freed

Donald Freed , is a Canadian singer and songwriter best known for his works about life on the Western Canadian prairies and the province of Saskatchewan in particular.-Life and career:...

 and Hart-Rouge

Hart-Rouge

Hart-Rouge are a Canadian folk music group, consisting of siblings Paul Campagne, Michelle Campagne and Suzanne Campagne.The three previously recorded and performed with several other family members as Folle Avoine, and formed Hart-Rouge with another sibling, Annette Campagne, when that band ended...

.