Chxrry, the first woman signed to The Weeknd's XO Records, is coming for the world

Chxrry is photographed in Toronto on Friday, May 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Chxrry is on the cusp of her first headlining hometown show, but the Scarborough-raised artist has her sights set far beyond the city.

On a sunny Friday at Universal Music Canada’s office, the alt-R&B singer born Lydia Habtemariam lays out those goals with casual confidence.

“We have really iconic people that have come out of Canada, but I think it has been a while since someone’s done something that’s really taken over globally,” she says.

“Well, that’s what I’m here to do. I don’t want to be a hometown hero. That’s not really on my bucket list. I always say: ‘You want the city, I want the world.’ I want to be the biggest.”

You can’t fault her ambition — she’s backed by one of the biggest artists on the planet. Chxrry is the first woman to sign with XO Records, the label founded by The Weeknd.

As part of the Departure Festival, she’ll take the stage Saturday at the Mod Club, where Abel Tesfaye himself played his first-ever show in 2011.

“I feel like that’s such a cute passing-the-baton moment,” she says.

Still, The Weeknd has offered one consistent directive: “Create your own lane.”

“He’s really smart, that guy. The best advice he’s given me is probably, ‘Follow your vision,’” she says. “I feel he’s living proof of that.”

So, Chxrry is leaning into radical honesty on her debut album, “U, Me & My Ego,” out May 29 on XO/Universal.

The eclectic project finds her balancing confession with command, sliding between slow-burning R&B kiss-offs (“Bottles & Lights”), fluttering pop love songs (“Bible”) and bass-heavy baddie anthems (“Blockstar”) — all with a smouldering, featherlight voice that can turn cutting without ever raising its volume.

She breaks down the three-pronged title: “Me,” the vulnerable Lydia; “U,” usually a man in her life; and “My Ego,” her more assertive persona, Chxrry.

“No one really talks about the different layers of having an ego. Even when it comes to gender — the difference in having an ego when you’re a man and when you’re a woman,” she says.

“Is me being really confident having an ego, or is it just me being really confident?”

Chxrry says the album, helmed by Birmingham producer Believve, is rooted in telling it how it is.

On shimmering single “Bottles & Lights,” featuring Atlanta R&B star Mariah The Scientist, she eviscerates an unfaithful partner: “I’m not your mama, I’ll leave ya / Just like your father, I’ll leave ya.”

“I intentionally wrote this album as honestly as possible,” she says.

“I want to say things that I feel like only I would say, or that other people relate to, that maybe they wouldn’t say out loud.”

‘Quit your job, pack your bags, we’re going to Hollywood’

That unfiltered voice was first formed in quieter spaces.

Growing up in Scarborough, music was always close by. Her parents, both Ethiopian immigrants, sang in choirs, and she often performed at church events.

“My mom used to make me sing at weddings; she would hand out hats so people would put money in it,” she smiles.

But a music career wasn’t the plan. She briefly attended York University, eventually dropping out but still lingering around campus, until a friend roped her into a phone-camera performance that proved seismic.

“She was taking my pictures and then she was like, ‘Why don’t you sing?’” Chxrry recalls. “I was like, ‘Sure, I guess.’”

The clip of her singing Rihanna’s “Work,” posted to Instagram in 2018, went viral overnight.

“I walked in my dad’s room like, ‘Quit your job, pack your bags, we’re going to Hollywood,’” she laughs.

Soon after, she was invited to studio sessions across Toronto. Her first recorded track, a ballad called “My Love,” quietly became a turning point. Released under her birth name, it circulated in industry circles and drew interest from multiple labels.

A message from XO co-founder Amir “Cash” Esmailian stood out immediately.

“Abel and I are both Ethiopian, and we have a lot of connections through people we know,” Chxrry says.

She grew up just down the street from Tesfaye, and their mothers were friends.

“And I really look up to him. I’d been learning from so many people, but I knew, ‘If I could learn from you, that would be the best option ever.’ So when he came, I was like, ‘Yes, let’s go. Let’s run it.’”

After two EPs — 2022’s “The Other Side” and 2023’s “Siren” — Chxrry says “U, Me & My Ego” finds her at her most self-actualized.

“I’m definitely obsessed with myself,” she laughs. “I discovered that I really like who I am. I’m starting to lean into who I am even more.”

Working with XO, she says, has felt less like being folded into a system and more like having space to build her own.

“They give me a lot of room to be my own artist, which is very rare,” she says. “A lot of times when you sign to a label, there’s pressure or expectation. With Abel, he’s really let me have my own experience.”

She adds XO has been an especially positive environment for women, pointing to female leaders she’s worked with in marketing, PR and management.

But while she respects what The Weeknd has built, she believes Toronto is due for its next breakout moment.

“I think we need a new surge. I want to make a new wave for women in Toronto, in Canada.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2026.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press