Victorella drops her self-titled debut album today, May 15, 2026, available now on all platforms via Falsetto Music Agency.
The 11-song record was written entirely by the Montreal artist between the ages of 14 and 19, covering teenage love, nostalgia, and the slow drift into adulthood. She self-produced and recorded the whole thing, with Matt Boudreau (BAIE) handling the mix and adding occasional guitar and synth lines. The credits round out with collaborators and musician friends: Jacob Savoie (MESSE) on drums, Pier-Alexandre Harvey (Métropole) and Xavier Gaudet on bass, and Kevin Roy (Parapariah) and Maxime Boudreau on lead guitar.
The album sits somewhere between indie rock and melancholic pop, drawing on The Cure, PJ Harvey, The Strokes, and David Bowie as reference points. Writing songs and producing at the same time has always been her default mode. “I started writing songs and producing at the same time, so for me it was kind of natural,” she has said. “I do really like having complete control over the final product.”
That control extends to the language she writes in. Victorella works bilingually, and the choice shifts depending on where the song starts. Lead single Crush(ed) pulled its title from an English wordplay that couldn’t be translated, and the rest of the song followed from there. “The choice of language really depends on my initial title idea,” she’s explained. It’s an approach that has created friction with Quebec’s grant system, where applicants are often required to pick one language or the other. “I sort of accepted it the way it was and decided to do my own thing,” she said. “I love to explore both languages and don’t want to limit myself just for money purposes.”
Her experience as a semi-finalist at the Festival International de la chanson de Granby last year gave her a foothold in the emerging Quebec scene, and connections that fed directly into this record. “It was a great opportunity for meeting emerging artists from here who became great friends of mine, like Messe, Mitaine or the French artist Gervaise,” she recalled.
The release date is personal. Today would have been the 111th birthday of Victorella’s great-grandmother Victorine, the woman behind the artist name. “I had the chance to know her until she was 107,” Victorella wrote on social media this morning. “I wanted to pay tribute to this unique, pretty funny woman who really loved to live.”
The live band now includes Louna Cartier Denis on keys and vocals, whose presence has shifted how the project feels on stage. “I don’t feel like I have to play the role of the woman of the band anymore,” Victorella has said. “I can just be myself.” The visual side of the project runs through collaborator Cloé Chartrand, who makes dresses and merchandise from scratch. “Visuals are just as important as the music itself, because it creates another narrative,” Victorella has said. “You have to find a way to visually embody the same energy that is found in the music.”
An album launch is set for June 6 at Casa Del Popolo in Montreal, followed by a small tour through Quebec cities and into New Brunswick.
Victorella is out now.
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