CANADA: Montreal Metro’s 60th anniversary carries a different kind of musical tribute than its 50th. Where the 2016 celebrations centered on a single day of live performances, MUSIQC and the STM built four interactive song maps linking 82 francophone songs to stations across the network, ahead of the anniversary date on Oct. 14.

STM Azur train at Beaubien station on Montreal Metro’s Orange Line
An STM Azur train at Beaubien station on Montreal Metro’s Orange Line. Illustrative photo. Photo: Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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MUSIQC and the STM Build Four Song Maps for the Network

MUSIQC is the music-discovery platform developed by SPACQ-AE, the professional association representing Quebec’s francophone songwriters and composers. The station-by-station project follows a set of regional Quebec music maps MUSIQC launched earlier in the summer of 2026. For the anniversary, the two organizations sorted the network’s four lines into separate playlists featuring more than 100 artists, including Beau Dommage, Diane Dufresne, Laurence Nerbonne, Alfa Rococo, Muzion and Jean Leloup, with singer Alexandre Désilets voicing the playlists.

By the numbers, the four public playlists break down as follows. Each also carries two short “MUSIQC x STM” audio identifiers, “Longue” and “Courte,” which aren’t counted as songs:

Line Total tracks Songs
Orange 33 31
Green 29 27
Blue 14 12
Yellow 14 12

That’s 82 songs in total across the network.

The format broadens the musical tribute the STM used for its 50th anniversary in 2016, when a piece commissioned from composer José Evangelista and performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal formed part of a single day of live shows and a radio broadcast from Place-des-Arts station. The 2026 project combines online, station-by-station maps with a planned listening experience inside the metro.

An Interactive Map Ties Each Song to a Station

Each playlist is built around a clickable map: selecting a station icon opens a card connecting a song to that stop. One example highlighted by MUSIQC involves songwriter Michel Rivard, who has said that a rainy evening near Beaubien station on the Orange Line helped inspire “La complainte du phoque en Alaska.”

Listening Stations Bring the Playlists Into the Metro

MUSIQC is scheduled to install listening stations in the metro from Oct. 12 to 16, according to the official STM anniversary program. Riders are due to be invited to discover which francophone song is associated with their station. Specific locations have not yet been announced.

The Music Is One Piece of a Wider Anniversary Program

The playlists sit inside a broader STM campaign called 60 Years of Metro Moments, unveiled Aug. 18 alongside partners including Piknic Électronik, the Montreal Alouettes, CF Montréal and the Montreal Canadiens. Piknic Électronik is set to host a DJ set inside a train car, while the STM plans to sell anniversary merchandise illustrated by LaCharbonne from Sept. 23 to Oct. 19. Proceeds are due to support Centraide of Greater Montreal and Réchaud-bus.

Radio-Canada is due to air the documentary “Pierre-Yves prend le métro” on Sept. 17. Alongside the celebrations, STM board chair Aref Salem pointed to significant infrastructure-maintenance challenges facing the network after six decades in service.

A Collective Artwork Marks the Anniversary on Oct. 14

The STM is inviting riders to submit their own “metro moments” through an online form. The submissions are set to become part of a collective artwork scheduled for unveiling on Oct. 14, the date the network opened in 1966. Montreal City Council is scheduled to adopt a declaration honoring the metro on Aug. 24, Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said.

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