Chantal Kreviazuk Is Doing The Work

There’s a scene in I’m Going to Break Your Heart—the 2019 documentary that follows Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida, her husband, as they retreat to a remote French island to work on new music (and their marriage)—in which Kreviazuk breaks into song in a patisserie. The lyrics are inspired by a recent session with their marriage coach, during which she relayed her experience of feeling belittled as the youngest kid in her family and how Maida can trigger the same feeling when he’s inattentive. She sings the first verse of the song, called “Bring That Boy,” and then Maida tells her to stop. “I get it,” he says. “I’m getting choked up.” In the background, a woman seated behind the couple looks at them with a mildly befuddled expression.

Throughout the documentary, Kreviazuk puts it all on the table—the good, the bad, the mundane—in regard to her decades-long marriage to the Our Lady Peace front man, with whom she shares three teenage sons. This is something she continues to do on Instagram, garnering fervent replies. (One example: “This is some freaking amazing truth about marriage.”) As a result of these unvarnished yet hopeful dispatches from the midlife marriage trenches, couples have sent Kreviazuk and Maida videos of themselves tearing up their divorce papers, inspired to try again.

While researching Kreviazuk for this story, I will admit that I felt—like the woman in the patisserie—mildly befuddled. This confusion didn’t stem from the Winnipeg-born singer’s enduring, well-earned success. She’s a prolific songwriter who describes the process of working with other artists as a “spiritual transaction”; she has written for Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Pitbull and Britney Spears, in addition to releasing nine solo records and a joint album with Maida under the moniker Moon Vs Sun, as well as contributing her commanding vocals to various other projects. (If you need a refresher, “Wayne,” from her 1996 debut album, Under These Rocks and Stones, remains a barnburner of a track.)

Instead, it’s Kreviazuk’s unflinching candour about her marriage that I don’t quite get at first, whether she’s detailing a fight over outdoor plants on Instagram or tweeting that she misses Maida when he goes to the store. (For the record, I do not miss my husband when he goes to the store.) But as I speak to Kreviazuk, it becomes clear that authenticity is her default setting, something that powers all of her partnerships—domestic, professional and otherwise.

***

“I do believe that if we follow our values and follow the things that feel uniquely purposeful to us, then everything will work out,” Kreviazuk tells me over a recent Zoom call from her home in Los Angeles. We’re talking about her new partnership with British Columbia–based beauty brand Back to Earth, an eight-product range made from sustainably harvested clay and sold in 100 percent biodegradable packaging. “The company is completely transparent, which is one of my major values when it comes to getting involved with anyone.”

Kreviazuk’s involvement with any project is never in name only. “There are a lot of artists who show up to support a cause, but Chantal is not a hobbyist,” says Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and president of War Child Canada, a charity that provides long-term support to women and children in countries affected by war. Nutt first met Kreviazuk 25 years ago at the MuchMusic building in Toronto, which led to the singer recording a public-service message for the organization. Since then, Kreviazuk has travelled with War Child to places like Ethiopia, Jordan and Iraq and recently received the inaugural War Child Founder’s Award.

“Watching her interact with people who have experienced loss and war, I’ve witnessed her compassion and her empathy and her understanding of all that life is—the good and the bad and the joyful and the heartbreaking,” says Nutt. “She’s an artist in the truest sense of the word.”

The pair have also become close friends. “We laugh so much when we’re together that my face and abs hurt when I go home,” says Nutt, who notes that Kreviazuk is always the first person to jump in the lake, even on the chilliest cottage weekend. “It’ll be freezing, but for her, it’s a beautiful day.”

Kreviazuk’s optimism courses throughout our conversation. “I’m turning 50, but I’m really excited about the future,” she says. “It feels like my cup runneth over.” She ended up celebrating her milestone birthday at a Toronto fundraiser for the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) Canada, for which she recently became an ambassador. “We take great care to choose authentic people as ambassadors,” Goodall, the renowned primatologist, tells me. She first met Kreviazuk at an event 25 years ago. (Afterward, the two spent hours walking around Toronto together.)

At this year’s event, Goodall and Kreviazuk spoke about JGI’s work—tens of thousands of young people around the world have gone through its Roots & Shoots youth-leadership program, which was established in the 1990s—and also the war in Ukraine. Kreviazuk, who is half Ukrainian, is currently fundraising for Unite with Ukraine, an initiative that provides supplies to men and women on the front lines. “Helping a war effort kind of goes against what the past 25 years of working with War Child has meant to me,” she says, “but nobody would believe that we would be having this type of fight in the year 2023.”

While Kreviazuk says she has never hesitated to speak out about her beliefs, it’s gotten easier as she’s gotten older. “You command space in a different way,” she says. “I’ve never been shy, but I feel really confident now.” At 50, she’s also reaping the rewards of playing the long game. “As an artist, I’ve never been massive—I’ve never gone up and come down, fallen off and then gotten back up,” she says. “I’ve always just been out here doing my thing.”

This brings us back to the patisserie. I now realize that sharing her relationship struggles—and how she’s overcome them—is another extension of Kreviazuk’s art. Her goal is to not only improve her own relationship, but yours too. “Great art is about being honest,” she says. “It comforts people and inspires people and empowers people to move forward.”

And so I finally understand the greater mission behind her Instagram musings, the incredibly intimate documentary and an upcoming book that will share some of the lessons from her and Maida’s 15 years of marriage coaching. “I feel like I’m on a path, and I really feel that way in the work I do with my husband in particular,” she says. “One step leads to another step.”