Murray Lightburn

Upcoming shows

No upcoming dates yet.

About

Murray A. Lightburn is a Canadian musician and composer, best known as the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for The Dears.

Lightburn has been called "the black Morrissey" due to his vocal similarity (and shared penchant for somewhat dark lyrics) to the former The Smiths lead singer. Incidentally, The Dears toured as Morrissey's opening act during Morrissey's solo tour in 2006.

In 2013, he released the solo album Mass: Light. His second solo album, Hear Me Out, was released in 2019.

His album Once Upon a Time in Montreal was longlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize.

As a composer, Lightburn has produced original music for films including Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, I Like Movies, and Too Much Sleep. Other credits include scores for TV series Near or Far (to be released in 2024 on CBC Gem), Black Life: Untold Stories, and original soundtrack for We Happy Few including the theme for the Lightbearer DLC.

At the 13th Canadian Screen Awards in 2025, he won the award for Best Original Music in a Documentary for his work on Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Also in Français

Murray Lightburn est un chanteur et compositeur canadien établi à Montréal, Québec. Il est le leader du groupe The Dears depuis 1995.

Lightburn a souvent été surnommé « le Morrissey Noir ». En 2005, l'ancien chanteur des Smiths demandait d'ailleurs personnellement à Lightburn que The Dears assurent les premières parties de ses spectacles aux États-Unis pour la tournée suivant la parution de son disque solo You Are The Quarry. Le groupe avait aussi ouvert pour Morrissey à Toronto et Los Angeles en 2004.

Murray Lightburn est marié depuis 2005 à la claviériste Natalia Yanchak, également membre des Dears. Le couple a une fille, Neptune Lightburn, née en 2005.

Listen

Follow

Upcoming shows

About

Discography

Albums

Singles