With the soul of a poet, the heart of a rock icon, and the diamond-hard vision of an auteur, Goldie Boutilier is an absolute master of turning mythmaking into self-salvation. On Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana, the independent singer/songwriter offers an intimate glimpse of her alter ego: a fiercely glamorous outlaw-provocateur created by Goldie as a source of strength during her some of her most difficult times. A glorious smash cut juxtaposing moments of lust and danger and hard-won transcendence—all soundtracked by her lavish brand of guitar-driven noir-pop—the album ultimately finds Goldie taking charge of her destiny by fully living her truth and ultimately inspiring others to find their own “Goldie Montana” within.
Arriving on the heels of an acclaimed run of EPs—2022’s Cowboy Gangster Politician, 2023’s Emerald Year, 2024’s The Actress— Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana marks the Nova Scotia-born artist’s most bravely confessional body of work to date. “When I wrote the previous EPs, it was my first time speaking about things I felt very ashamed of, and there was a lot of fear around that,” says Goldie. “But after seeing how those songs resonated with people, I felt empowered to take more of those risks in my songwriting. Being honest about my experience has transformed my life for the better, and this album is reflective of a woman who feels totally unshakable.”
Inspired by epic crime dramas like Brian De Palma’s Scarface and Martin Scorsese’s Casino, Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana embodies all the splendor and flash of those classic films, matching its kinetic energy with an opulent sonic aesthetic. In dreaming up the album’s gorgeous blurring of eras and genres—’70s glam-rock, ’80s synth-pop, torch-song balladry, moody psychedelia, and more—Goldie worked with an eclectic lineup of producers including her unwavering ally and cowriter Simon Wilcox, longtime collaborator Max Baby, Thomas “Tawgs” Salter, as well as elite guest musicians like Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. Recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles, Goldie Montana draws much of its impact from Goldie’s beguiling vocal presence. This is an element that’s enraptured audiences in her 2025 headline tours across North America and Europe, opening for Katy Perry in the U.K. on her Arena Tour, her performances at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, All Things Go and her 2024 run as support for country iconoclast Orville Peck.
Although Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana surfaced from the daring sense of self-assurance she’s unlocked in recent years, the album’s narrative is rooted in a whirlwind saga that began over a decade ago. After signing her first record deal at age 21 and moving to L.A. from her tiny hometown, Goldie found herself swallowed up by the cold-blooded chaos of the music business. As she navigated a landscape of sometimes unsurmountable obstacles, Goldie found a lifeline in the anti-heroes of her beloved films. “Movies like Scarface and Casino helped me create the character I became to deal with everything: a femme fatale who uses her femininity to claw her way to the top of a corrupt world,” she says. “Instead of waiting for someone to come along and save me, I became that character to save myself.”
Made in close collaboration with co-writer Simon Wilcox (a poet/songwriter known for her work with Zella Day, Poppy, and Jess Glynne), Goldie Montana emerged from a novel-like piece of writing in which Goldie vividly revisited all of the hardships she has faced. In selecting a title for the album, she chose to exalt the larger-than-life alter ego whose moniker comprises a mashup of Tony Montana (the Miami drug lord portrayed by Al Pacino in Scarface) and her own self-bestowed name. “People used to call me Goldilocks as a nickname, because I’m a tricky bitch who’s never satisfied,” she explains. “Growing up I always hated my real name, but when people started calling me Goldie, I felt good about myself. I came up with the concept of Goldie Montana as a way to access the part of me who relates to Tony—someone who gets what he wants at any cost.”
In its exquisite collision of grit and glamour and high-stakes drama, Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana opens on the gilded grooves of “King of Possibilities.” It’s a slow-burning track she sums up as a “dreamy ode to the process of building an empire, only to eventually feel its burden.” As she flaunts her captivating vocals and feverish charisma, Goldie inhabits the role of a man ruined by his own greed, bringing a spellbinding intensity to every line (the song’s final lyric: “I got a fantasy/You’re crawling on your knees/I’m the King/King of possibilities”). From there, the album turns euphoric as Goldie shapeshifts into the protagonist of “Neon Nuptials,” a starry-eyed tale of lovers on the run. “There was a time when I felt like falling in love was for everyone but me, like I’d missed out on love because of my life decisions,” says Goldie. “‘Neon Nuptials’ is a song about the kind of love I’m hoping for, and of course I had to make the main characters a little bit rebellious.”
While much of Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana presents an unflinching look at “the transactions, the compromises, the private rooms in clubs where no one’s really laughing,” its unvarnished realism also extends to Goldie’s explorations of heartbreak and loss. On “I Can’t,” for instance, she captures the paralysis of post-breakup grief, magnifying the ballad’s melancholic spirit with Hammond’s majestic guitar work. Next, on “Favorite Fear,” Goldie flips the scripts and shares a revenge fantasy directed at the same ex (from the first verse: “Like a tiger in a cage, holding in its rage/Fear is a chandelier and it’s fallen…Wanted a geisha wife, but I’m a Swiss Army knife/My angels are always watchin’”). “I was sick of being sad and decided to handle the breakup Goldie Montana-style, which is to make him regret it,” she points out.
One of the most exhilarating tracks on Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana, “I Am The Rich Man” arrives as a darkly seductive anthem adorned with coquettish vocal flourishes inspired by an iconic interview Cher once gave where her mother said to her, “one day you should settle down and marry a rich man. And Cher said, “mom I am a rich man.” “I remember encountering all these soullessmen and thinking, ‘I’m smarter than you, I’m more empathetic than you, I could do what you do and do it so much better,’” she says. “For me ‘I Am The Rich Man’ is a form of manifestation—it’s speaking my future into existence, but doing it with a bit of a wink.” And on “Goldie Montana,” the album goes full-throttle with a fuzzed-out manifesto about reaching a life-altering level of self-reliance. “There was a point where I had to turn myself into a strong character in order to survive, but now that I’m in a new chapter of my life I’m still able to access that very same confidence,” says Goldie. “So much of my experience as an escort was terrible but I don’t regret anything, because it’s given me a resilience and an edge that I might not have otherwise.”
As she steps into her most powerful era yet, Goldie hopes to help others transform their own struggle into triumph. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that the sooner you let go of shame and get to the truth, the better off you’ll be—your whole life will get better, even if it it’s hard at first,” she says. “I think we all need to be encouraged to break out of our shame spirals and be truly ourselves.” And with the release of Goldie Boutilier Presents Goldie Montana, she aims to ignite an unstoppable boldness in every listener. “This album is for all the people who’ve ever felt counted out or undervalued,” says Goldie. “I want to show everyone that you can turn that negativity into your secret weapon. You can take that time to rebuild yourself—and then come back better and stronger, and ready to take on the whole fucking world.”