February 13, 2017
It’s that time of year again. Last Tuesday, The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2017 edition of the JUNO Awards. The big soirée, along with JUNO Week’s smattering of concerts, will take place in Ottawa on April 2. There are, as expected, quite a few familiar faces. Drake, the Weeknd, and Shawn Mendes are each up for five awards, while Leonard Cohen and Alessia Cara both received four nods. Kaytranada is up for Electronic Album of the Year, which gives him a chance to follow up last year’s Polaris Prize win, but his competition is stiff, especially given A Tribe Called Red’s smash powwow-step album We Are The Halluci Nation is up for the same trophy.
CARAS also revealed a few of the performers for the Ottawa bash. Alessia Cara, A Tribe Called Red, the Strumbellas, and Ruth B will all be bringing their tunes live to the Canadian Tire Centre for the televised event. As well, April 1 will see the Saskatchewan-born Buffy Sainte-Marie receive the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award. A statement about the award on the JUNOs website reads, “Sainte-Marie exemplifies the essence of humanitarianism through her dedication to protecting indigenous communities and indigenous intellectual property, which have been at the epicentre of her lifelong activism.”
Once more, the JUNOs’ lack of diversity has started a conversation, this time fuelled by a statement from Tegan and Sara, expressing thanks for the nominations but urging industry members to use their power to shed a light on the “diverse population of our country working in the arts today.” The actual numbers, which the Quin sisters address in the statement, are quite disheartening: “In 8 categories no women were recognized at all, and in over 12 additional categories, only 1 in 5 of the nominees included a woman. Specifically in the areas of production and engineering, it is discouraging to not see a single woman represented.”
See Tegan and Sara’s full statement on the JUNO nominations.
Check out the full list of 2017 JUNO nominees.
In Other News:
- Here are your Prism Prize finalists.
- And here are the nominees for this year’s East Coast Music Awards.
- Paper Bag Records is going to be reissuing “vintage” vinyl by Canadian bands.
- Drake was the world’s best-selling artist last year.
- Toronto’s legendary El Mocambo is re-opening this summer…
- … but there are still many venues in the city that are closing.
- WayHome wants you to guess which artists are playing the Ontario festival’s 2017 edition by checking out these photos.
Festival Lineups: ShrEdmonton, Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival, Toronto’s 21C Music Festival, Victoriaville, Qubec’s FIMAV
