the summer of

What it was like to be 15 in 2021 in Canada

To be fifteen in Canada in 2021 was to have “Stay” by The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber everywhere, Spider-Man: No Way Home on every screen, and Squid Game on after school. That year, gas cost ~$1.42/L and Hybrid and in-person school return after more than a year of remote learning was the new thing. Born in 2006? You turned 15 in 2021 — a teenager from 2019 to 2025, right in the window a soundtrack bonds to you for life.

Compiled by the Original Lore archive from period charts, box-office and price records. How we build these · sources noted throughout.

▶ Play your 2021 reel with sounda 30-second video of your year — the song, the screen, the turn.

the mixtape of 2021

Stay — The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber

  1. Peaches — Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar & GiveonBieber's breezy hook was the sound of masks-off optimism, a patio reopening you weren't sure you deserved.
  2. Save Your Tears — The Weeknd & Ariana GrandeThe Weeknd and Ariana turned neon heartbreak into the drive you took just to feel motion again.
  3. Levitating — Dua LipaDua's disco earworm finally got its real summer, blasting from every reopened patio speaker in July.
  4. Montero (Call Me By Your Name) — Lil Nas XLil Nas X's fearless pole-drop was the summer everyone dared to be exactly, loudly themselves.
  5. good 4 u — Olivia RodrigoOlivia Rodrigo's pop-punk scream was the group-chat rage-text of every heartbroken kid that year.

▶ Play your 2021 reel

why this one mattered

The one song of that whole summer — inescapable on every radio station, every TikTok feed, every car window — fronted by the Stratford, Ontario kid every Canadian teen half-claimed as their own.

the year-end #1 was No. 10 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 year-end chart for 2021; reached No. 1 on the weekly Canadian Hot 100 in August 2021, right at the peak of summer, and was later named Canada's (and the world's) Song of the Summer.

what topped the Canadian box office in 2021

  • Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • Dune
  • Free Guy
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Encanto

the tv shows you are binging in 2021

  • Squid Game
  • Ted Lasso
  • Loki
  • Kim's Convenience (final season)
  • Schitt's Creek (post-finale rewatch wave)

the games you are playing in 2021

  • Among Us
  • Roblox
  • Minecraft
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  • Fortnite
  • Call of Duty: Vanguard

what things cost in 2021

What things cost in 2021
regular gas~$1.42/L
Ontario minimum wage$14.35/hr
average movie ticket~$10.75
domestic stamp (booklet)$0.92
the average income~$63,000 average annual employment income

trending this year

Tim Hortons Cold Brew
AI-generated illustration
Tim Hortons Cold Brew
Nintendo Switch OLED Model
Photo by PantheraLeo1359531 (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo-Switch-OLED-Docked.jpg · CC BY 4.0
Nintendo Switch OLED Model
iPhone 13 lineup
Photo by SimonWaldherr (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_iPhone_13_Pro_and_13_Pro_Max.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
iPhone 13 lineup
Vaccine passport QR codes
Wikimedia Commons, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Covid-19_QR_certification.jpg · Public domain
Vaccine passport QR codes
Hybrid/in-person school return
Wikimedia Commons, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aviano_high_school_students_go_back_to_in_person_learning_(6521135).jpg · Public domain
Hybrid/in-person school return

the gadgets you just got

iPhone 13
Photo by Kskhh (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_13.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
iPhone 13
Nintendo Switch OLED
Photo by PantheraLeo1359531 (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo-Switch-OLED-Docked.jpg · CC BY 4.0
Nintendo Switch OLED
PlayStation 5
Osh33m, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
PlayStation 5
AirPods (3rd gen)
Photo by Yovt (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AirPods_3.jpg · CC0
AirPods (3rd gen)
Peloton Bike+
AI-generated illustration
Peloton Bike+

what everyone is snacking on

Ketchup chips
Photo by Hannah Clover (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ketchup_chips.jpg · CC BY 4.0
Ketchup chips
All-dressed chips
Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_pile_of_All_Dressed_potato_chips_on_a_paper_towel.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
All-dressed chips
Hickory Sticks
AI-generated illustration
Hickory Sticks
Coffee Crisp
Wikimedia Commons, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-Crisp-Split.jpg · Public domain
Coffee Crisp
Nanaimo bars
Photo by Alex Lozupone (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NanaimoS1370051.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nanaimo bars

what everyone is drinking

Tim Hortons double-double
Photo by Justin (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tim_Hortons,_extra_extra_large.jpg · CC BY-SA 2.0
Tim Hortons double-double
Tim Hortons Cold Brew
AI-generated illustration
Tim Hortons Cold Brew
Canada Dry ginger ale
Photo by Lynette (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canada_Dry_ginger_ale_bottles.jpg · CC BY 2.0
Canada Dry ginger ale
Milk in a bag
Photo by incommunicado (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_litre_bagged_milk,_Quebec.jpg · CC BY-SA 2.0
Milk in a bag
Clamato Caesar
Photo by AirIntake at English Wikipedia (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caesar_Cocktail.JPG · CC BY-SA 3.0
Clamato Caesar

what made the news in 2021

  • The Canada-US border reopens to vaccinated travellers after 17 months closed (August 2021)
  • The Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) winds down in October 2021, replaced by the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit
  • Wildfire smoke blankets much of Western Canada through the summer
  • Squid Game becomes a global streaming phenomenon that fall
Unmarked graves are found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, BC, sparking a national reckoning (May 2021)
Photo by GoToVan (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamloops_Residential_School_Memorial,_May_30th_2021_(51215278264).jpg · CC BY 2.0
Unmarked graves are found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, BC, sparking a national reckoning (May 2021)
A record-shattering 'heat dome' hits Western Canada; Lytton, BC sets Canada's all-time heat record (49.6°C) then burns (late June 2021)
Photo by SounderBruce (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lytton,_BC_-_Main_Street_%26_3_Street_after_the_wildfire.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
A record-shattering 'heat dome' hits Western Canada; Lytton, BC sets Canada's all-time heat record (49.6°C) then burns (late June 2021)
The Tokyo Olympics, delayed from 2020, are held over the summer; swimmer Penny Oleksiak becomes Canada's most decorated Olympian
Photo by Sander van Ginkel (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penny_Oleksiak.jpg · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Tokyo Olympics, delayed from 2020, are held over the summer; swimmer Penny Oleksiak becomes Canada's most decorated Olympian
Justin Trudeau calls a snap federal election; the Liberals win a third minority government (September 2021)
Photo by Office of the Prime Minister of Canada (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justin_Trudeau_2021.jpg · CC BY 3.0
Justin Trudeau calls a snap federal election; the Liberals win a third minority government (September 2021)
Canada's COVID-19 vaccine rollout reaches most eligible adults; provinces introduce vaccine passports for indoor venues
Photo by Great11 (Wikimedia Commons), source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vaccination_Montr%C3%A9al_Covid_19.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
Canada's COVID-19 vaccine rollout reaches most eligible adults; provinces introduce vaccine passports for indoor venues

what everyone is saying

  • "eh"the classic Canadian tag, still doing its job at the end of every sentence
  • "double-double"two cream two sugar, the most Canadian order there is
  • "no cap"TikTok-era slang for 'I'm not lying,' everywhere by that summer
  • "sus"borrowed straight from the Among Us craze, meaning suspicious
  • "keener"the kid who always volunteers for the extra credit

the summer of 2021.

you can't wait to be older.

…and then it cools. Play the reel to feel where 2021 goes.

Turn 2021 into a 30-second reel →

▶ Play your 2021 reel with sound