
Can’t-miss Montréal concerts heading into 2026

It goes without saying that 2025 has been, and continues to be, one of the most epic years for A-list live music in Montréal’s entertainment history. From Paul McCartney to John Legend to Lorde, if you like music — any music — the next many months have top-tier artists as varied as the seasons in Montréal, and next year is shaping up to be just as monumental music-wise. Let the following be your guide to all the can’t-miss Montréal concerts in 2025 and 2026...
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To enjoy the best concerts the city has to offer during your stay, please don't think of yourself as a tourist, but as one of us. We're counting on you to enjoy Montréal in a spirit of respect, responsibility and celebration!
Fall concerts
A timeless 30-year-old
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three decades since much-loved Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan released her breakout album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, but the numbers don’t lie. Now the Lilith Fair founder is announcing the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour, which will see McLachlan playing the entirety of the album in addition to other hits over two nights at Salle-Wilfrid Pelletier, Place des Arts, October 29 and 30. Vocal trio and TikTok darlings Tiny Habits will open.
A living Legend
It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since John Legend blew onto the R&B scene with a sophisticated mix of neo-soul, hip-hop and pop on his debut album, Get Lifted. The recording garnered eight Grammy nominations and won three Grammy Awards. Now, backed by his full band, Legend’s Get Lifted 20th Anniversary World Tour will showcase a setlist celebrating the entirety of the album as well as other career-spanning hits. Take in this legend-in-the-making when he warms up Place Bell, Laval on November 14.
Band on the run
The word “icon” isn’t nearly as monumental as it needs to be to describe Paul McCartney (who, in reality, needs no description at all). We’re going to have to invent a new word. The mind behind one of the most expansive, multi-generational and above all beloved music catalogues of all time will bring his Got Back 2025 tour to Montréal this fall. Expect classics like Hey Jude, Live and Let Die, Band on the Run, Let It Be and dozens more from McCartney’s solo, Wings and, of course, Beatles songbooks when he performs two shows at the Bell Centre, November 17 and 18.
Burnin’ down tha house
The first Nigerian artist to headline stadiums in the U.S. and the U.K., singer/songwriter/producer Burna Boy has hit the afterburners on his already rapid ascent. And he collects best international artist awards like other people collect baseball cards. Insanely infectious afrobeat, dancehall and reggae are his M.O., and he returns to the Bell Centre for his No Sign of Weakness Tour — featuring a 360-degree stage in the middle of the floor — on December 15.
Rapid-fire rap and rock
Formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly, and now shaking stages under the acronym mgk, multi-platinum-selling rapper, singer, pop-punk rocker and songwriter Colson Baker has taken an unusually winding, and sometimes rocky, road to the top. His latest album, Lost Americana, sees his star continuing to rise as his Lost Americana Tour circles the world, landing in the Bell Centre on December 10 with up-and-coming alt-pop artist Julia Wolf.
Three-of-a-kind performances
The fraternal phenomenon that is the Jonas Brothers (Joe, Kevin and Nick, in the unlikely event you forgot) are taking their music-making family trilogy on the road in support of their seventh and latest studio album, Greetings from Your Hometown. The Jonas20: Greetings from Your Hometown Tour is also a celebration of the bros’ two decades writing and performing together and, if lead-up shows are any indication, fans can likely expect some high-profile guest appearances. Opening acts include Jesse McCartney, Franklin Jonas (the younger other Jonas brother) and Deleasa at the Bell Centre, December 17.
Concerts in 2026
A diamond mine of music
Alt-country rockers Blue Rodeo have always managed to swim against the current, racking up reams of radio play with songs like Try, After the Rain and Diamond Mine at a time when grunge and other music genres were the prevailing flavours of the day. Now the Canadian Walk of Fame, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees (it doesn’t get more Canadian than that, eh?) are embarking on their Lost Together – The 40th Anniversary Tour. Special guest Adam Baldwin will open when the tour pulls into Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts on January 17, 2026.
Get ready for a scary good time
Leave it to the Swedes: theatrical monsters of rock Ghost have upped the stakes with their sixth “psalm” Skeletá, their first album to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200, and which has the band selling out arenas across North America on their Skeletour World Tour. The tour is a phone-free experience (phones will be secured in Yondr pouches that concertgoers maintain possession of at all times). So put your devices away and pull out your Ghost-themed costumes, skeletal face paint, papal robes and nun habits for a raucous night of apparition rock when Ghost spooks the Bell Centre on January 30, 2026.
The Floyd: too much and never enough
Montrealers love of legendary British prog-rockers Pink Floyd is bottomlessly deep. In the absence of the real thing, cover band Brit Floyd continues to do an epic job of filling the hole in music fans’ hearts. Brit Floyd’s newest world tour, The Moon, The Wall and Beyond, is a monumental production celebrating two of the most iconic and influential albums in rock history: The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. A state-of-the-art light show, lasers, video projections, inflatables and theatrical staging will be the name of the game at Place Bell in Laval on February 11, 2026.
Set your senses on overload
Anybody who’s ever seen industrial alt-rock icons Nine Inch Nails knows their shows are not an experience you’re going to forget anytime soon, and the current rave-reviewed Peel It Back Tour promises the kind of sensory onslaught that few bands other than NIN can deliver. Concertgoers can expect hits, rarities and tracks from the chart-topping TRON: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), the group’s first-ever film score. Nine Inch Nails will shake the foundations of the Bell Centre on February 16, 2026 with special guests Boys Noize.
Come out and play
A SoCal punk rock fan’s dream is about to come true when The Offspring, coming off a record-setting sold-out European tour, return to Montréal with the epic Bad Religion in the opening slot. Their popularity unabated, The Offspring’s recently released Supercharged LP reached historic milestones with multiple songs joining the coveted Spotify Billions Chart. The Supercharged Worldwide in ’26 tour will electrify the Bell Centre on February 21, 2026.
Twice the fun
They were the first all-girl K-pop group to headline Lollapalooza, and the first to headline both MLB and NFL stadiums in the United States, selling out Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in 2024. Now the nine-member, bubble-gum pop juggernaut Twice are expanding their global footprint with the <This Is For> World Tour, which will see them debuting their first 360-degree, in-the-round stage experience for fans. Catch them from all angles in the Bell Centre on March 3, 2026.
Alive and kicking
Nineties alt-rock gets its due when multi-platinum band +LIVE+ headline their first Canadian cross-country tour in over 20 years in celebration of the 35th anniversary of their 1991 hit album Mental Jewelry. Sweetening the deal, longstanding Canadian/American group Big Wreck will join them on the Like a Rollin’ Thunder Tour 2026, while popular Montréal rockers The Damn Truth will set the tone at Place Bell in Laval on March 10, 2026.
“Mayhem” may be an understatement
Lady Gaga’s popularity appears to have no upper reaches. In Rio de Janeiro during May 2025, her free show at Copacabana Beach drew an estimated 2.5 million fans, setting a new record for the highest-attended concert by a female artist in history. And her eighth and latest studio album, Mayhem, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it her seventh consecutive number one solo album. Montrealers will get their chance to go goo goo for Gaga when she rolls her rave-reviewed Mayhem Ball tour into the Bell Centre on April 2 and 3, 2026.
For those who like it loud
British deathcore cum alt-metal cum electro-rockers Bring Me the Horizon have definitively demonstrated that, at the very least, their own musical horizon is vast and that keeping it complicated is its own reward. Vocal cords will be shredded when the popular four-piece bring their N. American Ascension Program 2 tour to the Bell Centre on April 29, 2026 with openers Motionless in White, The Plot in You and Amira Elfeky.
Your kinda Friday and Saturday night
Trying to measure country music phenomenon Luke Combs’ immense, ever-expanding popularity is like trying to imagine the size of the universe — it’s truly unknowable. His upcoming My Kinda Saturday Night Tour adds to an already historic career for Combs, who recently made history as the first country musician to headline both Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. Combs — with special guests Dierks Bentley, Ty Myers, Jake Worthington and Thelma & James — will put some twang in your thang at Parc Jean-Drapeau, May 29 and 30, 2026.
Would you like some five sauce with that?
While AC/DC probably don’t have anything to worry about just yet, Australian pop-rock foursome 5 Seconds of Summer (or 5SOS, or five sauce, you pick) have racked up more than seven billion streams of their catchy, dancey tunes since their 2011 inception, making them one of the most successful Aussie music acts in the country’s history. Let your starlight shine when they bring their Everyone’s a Star! World Tour to the Bell Centre on June 3, 2026.
There are many directions
The members of U.K. boy band One Direction may have split into five directions, but all of those paths have led to individual stardom and musical success (albeit RIP Liam Payne). The platinum-selling Louis Tomlinson carries on that tradition with his third and latest album, How Did I Get Here?, which finds him making Lemonade, the recording’s crazy catchy first single. Tomlinson’s How Did We Get Here? World Tour finds its way into the Bell Centre, July 16, 2026.
Get ready for some wicked shows
Quiz time: Who has over 115 billion global streams, 70 million albums sold worldwide, the most billion-streamed songs in Spotify history, is the artist with the most number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 this decade (seven), and starred in the blockbuster film Wicked, which became the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation in box office history? It can only be Ariana Grande, who will bring her new Eternal Sunshine Tour to the Bell Centre for two nights, July 28 and 30, in 2026.
You’ll want to rush to get these tix
All the world’s a stage, and they aren’t merely players. One of Canada’s most formidable musical exports, iconic prog-rockers Rush, are on tour for the first time since the passing of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in 2020. The much-loved, multiple-hall-of-fame inductees are taking 50 years of transformational music on the road as part of their rapidly selling out Fifty Something Tour (four sold out shows in each of the cities of New York, Toronto, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas alone). Be there, or be sad, at the Bell Centre for concerts on September 2 and 4, 2026.
Run for your lives!
Three of the original monsters of metal are about to set foot in Montréal, led by the truly legendary Iron Maiden (and, of course, fearsome mascot Eddie the Head). As time certainly does fly, somewhat unbelievably the Maiden are celebrating their 50th anniversary on their Run for Your Lives World Tour 2026, and promise a setlist featuring the biggest songs of their lengthy career. Sweetening the deal, Iron Maiden will be accompanied by fellow metal pioneers Megadeth and Anthrax. The number of the beast is September 3, 2026 at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
A cool cat
Not everyone can parlay an internet meme into a massive music career, but that’s exactly what L.A. rapper, singer and songwriter Doja Cat did with her 2018 novelty single Mooo!, on which she portrays herself as a cow. Like, an actual cow. Fast forward to 2025, and the “Queen of Pop-Rap,” or the “Queen of Memes” as she is alternately known, is taking her massive, year-long, 62-city Tour Ma Vie World Tour to no less than five continents. Catch the Doja Cat at the Bell Centre on November 27, 2026.

Jamie O'Meara
Jamie O'Meara was the Editor-in-Chief at C2 Montréal and the former Editor-in-Chief of alt-weekly newspaper HOUR Magazine.