Link Strummer Brings Victoria's Secret to the Rivoli, a Mississauga Take on 1980s Pop and R&B
A Toronto-Area Singer Returns with a Glossy Midtempo Single, His Third Since 2025
On 9 July 2026, Link Strummer played Victoria’s Secret at The Rivoli in Toronto, as part of Breaking Sound Toronto. The single had been out since 17 April. It is a glossy, 1980s-inspired piece of pop and R&B built on a punchy midtempo groove. It also places a young artist from Mississauga inside one of the longest lines in Black popular music.
Link Strummer is in the playlist below, with Victoria’s Secret in the running order. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Listen to it there first, then read on.
The 1980s Wave in Pop and R&B Runs Back to Synth-Funk
That line starts with a swap, and the swap had a home address. In the late 1970s, Prince and the Minneapolis sound traded funk’s horn sections for synthesizers, then blended in new wave and synth-pop. The style’s heyday ran through the late 1980s, out of clubs such as First Avenue.
The pocket stayed. The groove still sat where funk had always put it, under a song built to move a room. Only the colour of the record changed. That is the version of the 1980s that keeps returning to pop. It returns most strongly when R&B singers want something glossy that still swings.
The current wave of it has a Toronto accent, too, thanks to the city’s biggest R&B export. So when a Mississauga singer reaches for 1980s synths on a midtempo R&B single, he is working on home ground.
Link Strummer Fits Victoria’s Secret Into a Comeback That Began With Under You in 2025
Link Strummer is the stage name of Aish Kamil Tuli, born on 3 October 2003 in Mississauga. He has performed since he was five, and the Strummer nickname came early, from his love of the guitar. He wrote his first song at ten and was self-releasing by his early teens.
The early catalogue was a one-person operation. A self-titled, self-produced debut album arrived in 2016, then the Wilderness EP in 2017, with the single Bittersweet. After that came Infatuation in 2018 and Numb in 2019. Then, in 2020, he stepped back.
The return came in stages. Under You arrived on 24 October 2025 as the comeback single. Picture Frame followed on 16 January 2026, and Victoria’s Secret landed in April. All three point to a studio album he plans to release in 2026, and Victoria’s Secret is its third single. In between, remixes of Under You and Picture Frame kept the new era moving.
This time the work is shared. The Spotify credits list Tuli as lyricist, composer and assistant producer. Domagoj Knezović is credited as composer, studio producer and beatmaker, and Mike Bannet mixed and mastered the track. Link Strummer sings it himself.
The idea is the part he wants people to notice. The song starts from a familiar fantasy about lingerie models, then turns it around. The woman he wants walks in, and the models on the wall stop mattering. She does not have to take anything off to hold his attention. So the confidence belongs to her, and the devotion belongs to him.
Bruno Mars and The Weeknd Are the Adjacent Acts for Link Strummer and Victoria’s Secret
Two acts frame where this single sits. Bruno Mars made the case that 1980s R&B could fill arenas again with 24K Magic, released in November 2016. The album went on to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. It carried the old pocket into modern pop production, and it showed how much room there was for a singer who wanted to strut.
The Weeknd is the closer neighbour. He is from Toronto. Blinding Lights, released on 29 November 2019, built a global hit out of 1980s synth-pop and new wave. For a singer coming up in Mississauga, that is visible proof that the Toronto area can own this sound.
Victoria’s Secret sits between the two. It has the strut of the first and the synth gloss of the second. It is also aimed at a younger audience. Gen Z and young millennial listeners are the target, the ones who want a record for getting ready, for date nights and for feeling like the most expensive person in the room.
The live date matters here as well. Playing the song at The Rivoli, a few months after release, put it in front of a Toronto crowd rather than only in a playlist. The filmed performance now sits on his YouTube channel next to the lyric video. More show dates for 2026 and 2027 are listed as coming soon on his website.
BlackSounds.News’s curator team: “Play Victoria’s Secret straight after Numb from 2019. Same writer, seven years apart. The self-producing teenager of the first record now has a co-producer, a mix engineer and a strutting midtempo groove, and the songwriting is still his.”
Stream Victoria’s Secret in the player above. Follow Link Strummer on Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and find his news and show dates on the official website.
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