Sarah McLachlan’s daughter offered to skip graduation to make John Summit gig happen

TORONTO — Sarah McLachlan wasn’t about to skip her daughter’s high school graduation for a splashy gig in Ibiza with American DJ John Summit.

But it’s a suggestion the singer-songwriter says her 18-year-old daughter made earlier this summer in hopes she might tag along for the party of a lifetime.

McLachlan’s voice features on Summit’s fresh remix of “Silence,” a song she originally released in 1999 with Vancouver electronic duo Delerium. It’s now considered a staple of the dance music scene and is commonly reworked and redone by other electronic producers.

The latest rework has been inescapable at summer music festivals, driven by McLachlan’s instantly recognizable vocals and Summit’s status as one of the hottest DJs of the moment. He’s called the original Delerium version a “timeless record” and one of his “all time favs.”

“I’m totally aware,” McLachlan beamed as she discussed the track’s renewed popularity.

“My partner’s kids, they’re like, ‘This is so cool.’… They’re all listening to it.”

Summit’s fans also include McLachan’s youngest daughter Taja, who begged her mom to accept his invitation to perform “Silence” live during one of his sets.

McLachlan was tempted, but all of the dates conflicted with the family’s busy schedule.

“‘I’ll skip graduation,'” she recalls her daughter pleading. “And I’m like, ‘No, you will not.'”

McLachlan was also putting the finishing touches on “Better Broken,” her first album in 11 years, which is set for release on Sept. 19.

And she’s part of “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery,” a retrospective documentary about the influential female-led music festival, which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival and on CBC next month.

As “Silence” resonates with another generation of partygoers, McLachlan feels like a lifetime away from her party days, which she says were brief, but included sitting atop the speaker in her early 20s at former Vancouver nightclub Luvafair. These days, she says she’s more likely to dance at home.

“Dude, I’m 57,” she reasoned.

But the latest chapter in the story of “Silence” isn’t lost on her either. It’s a song she’s still fond of because of its powerful design, which juxtaposes her pop-folk voice against a booming electronic production.

“The vocal is really stratospheric and then there’s that deep, intense bass,” she says.

“That’s the cool thing about mashing up all these different genres of music together — the creations that can happen are very, very cool. It takes a particular song … and gets you heard by people that would normally never be listening to your kind of music.”

McLachlan says while she hasn’t yet nailed down a time to appear with Summit it’s an idea that’s still on the table.

“We’re working on it,” she added. “But we’ll see.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2025.