CANADA'S CAPITAL RADIO STATION ADDS ZANNA RECORDS MUSIC TO ITS AIRWAVES — WITHOUT EVER BEING ASKED
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CJLL-FM CHIN Ottawa 97.9 FM — Serving 40 Cultural Communities in 20+ Languages — Organically Selects "I Am Destiny" on the Same Day the Artist's YouTube Channel Crosses 24 Million Views
SEDONA, ARIZONA — April 18, 2026 — Gianluca Zanna never submitted his music to CJLL-FM CHIN Ottawa. There was no pitch, no email, no PR campaign targeted at Canada's capital city. And yet, in the early hours of April 18, 2026, the station's DJ reached into a playlist and pulled out "I Am Destiny" — broadcasting it across Ottawa, Ontario, and the entire National Capital Region on 97.9 FM.
That is what organic discovery sounds like.
CJLL-FM CHIN Ottawa is no ordinary radio station. Launched in 2003 as the very first third-language broadcast service in Canada's capital, CHIN Ottawa is a landmark of multiculturalism — airing programming in more than 20 languages and serving up to 40 distinct cultural communities, from Arabic and Italian to Cantonese, Ukrainian, Russian, Punjabi, Haitian Creole, and beyond. It is, in many ways, the sonic embodiment of what Canada has always stood for: the idea that many voices, many cultures, and many languages can share the same airwaves and find common ground.
For Gianluca Zanna — an Italian immigrant who came to the United States with a dream and built an independent record label from scratch on a ranch in Sedona, Arizona — a station like CHIN Ottawa is not just a new entry in a radio log. It is a mirror. A station that celebrates the immigrant story, the multicultural story, the story of voices that cross borders and build something new. And it chose his music on its own.
"I never contacted CHIN Ottawa. I never sent a press kit, never submitted a song, never asked for anything. They found the music. That is the most powerful validation an independent artist can receive — not a favor, not a connection, not a campaign. Just the music speaking for itself."
— Gianluca Zanna
The timing of the CHIN Ottawa airplay adds yet another layer to what is becoming an extraordinary week for the artist and his label, Zanna Records. On the same day — April 18, 2026 — the Gianluca Zanna Music YouTube channel officially crossed 24,000,000 views, a milestone certified by vidIQ. This follows a certified 23 million view milestone just one week earlier on April 11, 2026, meaning the channel gained one million additional verified views in seven days.
The momentum does not stop there. Zanna's worldwide radio footprint — tracked and verified through the WARM (Worldwide Airplay and Radio Monitoring) system — now spans 251+ stations across 72+ countries on 6 continents.
Recent verified airplay has included Radio Kamchatka Dance in Moscow, Russia; Discoradio in Milano, Italy (audience: 398,000); The Beat Sweden in Stockholm; CIUT 89.5 FM in Toronto; and Horizonte 107.9 FM in Mexico City, among hundreds of others. His anthem "Wake Up America" has surpassed 20 million views on TikTok (Songstats confirmed, April 4, 2026), and his music has been licensed to NPR's Pulitzer Prize-winning program This American Life.
What makes the CHIN Ottawa airplay particularly resonant is the station's identity. In a world increasingly fractured by nationalism, isolation, and the politics of exclusion, CHIN Ottawa was built on the opposite premise — that Ottawa's streets, and the world's airwaves, are big enough for everyone. The station airs Italian programming in the mornings, then hands the microphone to Arabic, Spanish, Cantonese, Ukrainian, Hindi, and Russian voices throughout the day. It is a living, breathing argument that diversity is not a liability — it is a strength.
Gianluca Zanna's music was built with the same philosophy. Born in Rome, trained at the prestigious Nunziatella Military Academy in Naples, and a former Roman gladiator street performer, Zanna immigrated to the United States in 1998 and built Zanna Records entirely independently — developing a catalog of 150+ original compositions spanning EDM, classical, hard rock, and world music. He performs as "Luca" alongside singer Claudette Lyons in the EDM duo Luca and Claudette. His music has charted #1 on the North American College & Community Radio Chart, hit #3 on Amazon Dance & Electronic, and earned coverage in Rolling Stone, Forbes, Billboard Italia, Music Connection, and Entrepreneur UK.
That an independent artist — no major label, no corporate machine, no promotional budget targeting Ottawa — can reach Canada's most culturally diverse radio station through sheer musical merit is not just a personal milestone. It is a proof of concept: that great music, made with heart and distributed with persistence, can find its audience anywhere on the planet, in any language, on any continent.
Even when nobody asked it to.
BY THE NUMBERS — GIANLUCA ZANNA / ZANNA RECORDS (APRIL 2026)
🎬 24,000,000 YouTube views — vidIQ certified, April 18, 2026
📻 251+ WARM-verified radio stations across 72+ countries, 6 continents
📱 20,000,000+ TikTok views on "Wake Up America" — Songstats confirmed, April 4, 2026
🎵 150+ original compositions across EDM, classical, hard rock, and world music
🏆 #1 North American College & Community Radio Chart
🌍 Recent airplay: Russia, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Brazil, Barbados, and 65+ more countries
ABOUT GIANLUCA ZANNA / ZANNA RECORDS
Gianluca Zanna is an Italian-American artist, activist, and founder of Zanna Records, an independent label based in Sedona, Arizona. His catalog of 150+ original compositions spans EDM, classical, hard rock, and world music. He performs as "Luca" in the EDM duo Luca and Claudette alongside singer Claudette Lyons, represented by JJ Entertainment in Hollywood. His music has been verified on 251+ radio stations across 72+ countries and 6 continents, and his YouTube channel has surpassed 24 million views. For more information, visit www.zannarecords.com.
MEDIA CONTACT
Zanna Records
Sedona, Arizona
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