Mundial Montréal 2026: Five Days to Hear the New World

Montreal (Canada), November 7, 2026. In ten days, Montreal will listen to the whole world. From Tuesday, November 17 to Saturday, November 21, the 16th edition of Mundial Montréal rolls out its showcases in five venues across the city, gathers professionals from some fifty regions of the globe, and turns the metropolis, for five days, into the capital of global music. You come to discover; you stay because every night tells the story of another continent.

A summit like no other

Born in 2011 from an idea traded in a New York taxi by Sébastien Nasra and Derek Andrews, Mundial Montréal is a boutique event: at once a showcase festival and a professional market, one of the only gatherings in North America entirely dedicated to cross-cultural music. The artists — some forty cultures and communities — perform there before the public as much as before the presenters, programmers and booking agents who can change their trajectory. That double gaze is the singularity of the gathering: you applaud a concert there, and sometimes, you sign a world tour.

An opening carried by women's voices

The tone is set on the very first night. On Tuesday, November 17, La Sala Rossa opens the edition with five women-led projects — CHANCES, Princess Vinia, Carmen y María, Divka and Tara Moneka — weaving vocal harmony traditions from Cameroon, Spain, Ukraine, Iraq and here. And it is no isolated gesture: of the 33 projects selected by the independent jury, 17 are led by women and/or non-binary people. The world's next generation has a face, and it is plural.

Five days of showcases

Wednesday gives pride of place to Atlantic and Eastern Canada at the Maison des Arts Participatifs — Tiffany Liu, Dee Hernandez, Zaynab Wilson MoZayic, Ana & Eric — before an eclectic night at Petit Campus, from Waleed Kush Afro Jazz's East African jazz to Celia Wa's gwo ka. On Thursday, the showcases turn intimate — Nagata Shachu, Vigüela, Daby Touré, Toledano — then the night tips over at Foufounes Électriques: “Rythmes Nocturnes,” ten bands from 7:30 p.m. to midnight. On Friday afternoon, Centre Sanaaq offers the finest of gifts: an entirely free showcase, where Siibii — of the Indigenous Accents Series — shares the bill with Bianca Rocha, Alysha Brilla and Nadine Altounji.

November 20: six OFF nights

On Friday night, Montreal will not have ears enough. OFF Mundial bursts into six simultaneous nights across the city: Chia Productions at O Patro Vys (Daughters of Donbas, Hildá Länsman), the Coop Les Faux Monnayeurs at Café Campus (Margaret Tracteur, Les Tireux d'Roches, Less Toches), Fréquences Caribéennes at Le Belmont (1T1, Abondance Collective, Rachelle Allison), Musique Nomade at Quai des Brumes for its 20th anniversary (Laura Niquay and guests), Afro Mundial Fest at Toscadura (Samba Peuzzi, Anas Juulo)…

And then there is Club Balattou. The “Listen to the New World” night, presented by Wes Urban Productions, lines up four voices there, with free admission: Taigenz at 8 p.m., Joyce N'Sana at 8:45 p.m., Wesli at 9:30 p.m. and Lydol at 10:15 p.m. Two of those voices, Festival TV viewers already know: Wesli, whose second Félix was the subject of our article no. 304, and Lydol, the Cameroonian slammer also expected in Ottawa this December. The OFF stretches into Saturday, November 21 — Journée Escapade at Café Dépanneur, then the Ritmo Mundial After Party at Barbossa until 3 a.m. — before the edition's closing night, also with free tickets.

The professionals' meeting place

Mundial Montréal is also a week of work for the whole industry. On Tuesday, November 17, after an opening ceremony at Centre Sanaaq with Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, the Mentor Café gathers artists and six industry mentors around small tables: Ann Mackeigan (CompassMedia, media and storytelling), Andrés Mendoza (Cuto Consulting, strategy and revenue), Dani Alba Ochoa (Sonde3, international development), Kyla O'Donovan (All T'Hat Music, music supervision), Olivier Laroche (Pimp Ton Show, live performance coaching) and Will Spitz (CoveyLaw, U.S. artist visas). Then come the Speed Schmooze, the Réseau Routes du Monde gatherings, the SuperVISION program devoted to music for the screen — and, on Friday, the Artist Lab: a full day of professional development, entirely free, at Centre Sanaaq.

Five days, 33 showcases, six OFF nights and some forty cultures: in Montreal, the new world is not heard from afar — it is lived in the room.