The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song #1 - Tara from Halifax

Update: 2025-10-13

Description

Well, here we are. The end of the road. The summit. The final spin of The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown. After forty-four episodes, one cross-country fandom, and 441 days of counting, we hit the mountaintop—LIVE.

Recorded in front of a packed room of Hip fans at A Celebration of The Hip for ALS, this finale brings all the pomp, circumstance, and pure Canadian emotion you’d expect from a sendoff like this. Joined by the incomparable Tara Slone, we crown the #1 song as chosen by you—the listeners—and dig into what makes Grace, Too such a defining moment in the band’s story.

There’s reflection, revelation, and a few well-earned sighs. Because when the abacus finally stops spinning, what’s left is something bigger than rankings—it’s legacy.

About the Guest

Tara Slone—musician, broadcaster, actor, and lifelong champion of Canadian artists—joins jD live on stage for the grand finale. Tara’s Hipstory runs deep, from performing on national stages to interviewing Paul Langlois at Massey Hall. Her perspective on the band’s artistry, evolution, and impact is both intimate and electric. Together, she and jD unpack Grace, Too with reverence and humour, exploring its mystique, its mythology, and why Gord’s two-finger salute still echoes through time.

Why It Matters

This isn’t just another countdown. It’s a love letter to one of the greatest bands this country’s ever produced.

Over nearly a year, fans from across the globe submitted their Top 20 Tragically Hip songs, resulting in this fan-sourced canon of Hipdom. From 38 Years Old to Ahead by a Century—and finally, Grace, Too—the journey has been as poetic, chaotic, and proudly Canadian as the music itself.

And with Tara Slone on stage, the night becomes something else entirely: a collective catharsis. Part concert, part wake, part love fest. A moment when everyone in the room—bandana’d superfans, first-time listeners, and the just-plain-curious—felt the same electricity that Gord once bottled on stage.

Pull Quote

“I like to think this was a band that didn’t have a logo—every record was different because the content was different. They were explorers, always chasing their own evolution.” — jD

Big Thanks

To Tara Slone for being such a generous, brilliant guest. To every fan who submitted their Top 20. To the membersHIPwho kept this thing humming. And to Gord, Paul, Rob, Johnny, and Sinclair—for the soundtrack to our lives.

This isn’t goodbye—it’s a standing ovation that never ends.