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I didn’t know Goldie Boutilier until very recently. Her story is shocking and stranger than fiction. The Actress is great, but when you know the backstory, it’s breathtaking

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A few months ago, “The Angel and the Saint” hit my radar. I hadn’t heard of Goldie Boutilier before, and the song is has an instantly memorable sound to it. The jazzy, shuffling drums and bass match the old-school, pseudo-psychedelic sound of Boutilier’s voice, and the lyrics are playful and sassy. Besides classic artists like Dolly Parton, Boutilier’s vibe is reminiscent of two other recent blog faves Luvcat and Sofia and the Antoinettes:

The Actress EP came out at the end of September, and it’s a record that feels unusually substantive, and in the past few days I’ve finally gotten around to giving the record, and Goldie’s story, the attention it deserves. If you’re also new to her music, buckle up.

Goldie Boutilier is actually her third stage name: after a prodigious childhood (including singing with Men of the Deeps, my Cape Breton-born grandmother’s all-time favourite), she was discovered by someone from One Republic and began her music career as a popstar under the awkward name My Name is Kay (later shortened to a more reasonable Kay), and spent 5 years trying to break through, antagonized by the music label. From her website:

Amid commercially successful features with Diplo and Steve Aoki, three years later, with numerous budget cuts, artistic-direction changes, and working with over 50 producers in order to find the right “sound”, there had still not been one single release. After parting ways with her long-time manager and finding herself signed and dropped eight times over the next six years. 

What a nightmare. She kept on, reinventing herself as a DJ and pop diva named Goldilox. It’s kind of unclear where things went sideways there. This article talks about her releasing three albums under that name, but only an EP and a collection called Very Best are still around on streaming.

Finally reinventing herself as a more stripped-down alt-pop artist, Goldie Boutilier has released two prior EPs under this stage name, 2022’s Cowboy Gangster Politician and 2023’s Emerald Year.

Here’s a short documentary where she tells her own story, with more colour and detail than what’s above:

With that, it’s clear that The Actress is the most personal and provocative thing she’s done to date. On first listen it sounds like a series of songs about breakups, bad boyfriends and bad luck, but there’s an ocean of depth here. From the first lyric on the collection, it’s clear she’s singing to her former handlers:

It started with a lie/That this life belonged to me

I’m standing on the edge of my balcony

I changed the way I speak/You changed the way I dress

You kept me in your debt/You kept me like a pet

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