![]() Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson spoke about the band’s efforts to change the way Canada treated its indigenous people, and they also talked about how it felt to perform with the Hip. Last night, the Junos, Canada’s national music-awards show, gave its humanitarian award to the Tragically Hip. Last night, though, the Tragically Hip performed one song without him, with their friend and fellow Canadian Feist standing in. Downie kept making music, both with his band and solo, after that tour, but the final show, by all accounts, was special. Upon learning of Downie’s diagnosis, the Hip headed out on a farewell tour of Canada. At the time, frontman Gord Downie had terminal brain cancer. ![]() While the 2020 Avril goof may be on us, the sales factor that determines nominees for Album of the Year and the combined sales and jury vote that determine the New Artist of the Year, New Group of the Year, Rock Album of the Year, and Pop Album of the Year, make it very difficult for emerging and more relevant talent and rise past established acts.The Tragically Hip, Canadian national heroes, gave their last performance, a grand sendoff at Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, in August of 2016. The Juno Fan Choice Award is publicly voted. The way the Junos are awarded is currently based on a combination of sales, jury and member voting. ![]() Not to say that Justin Bieber isn’t Canadian, but when part of what qualifies nominees for the awards is the requirement that they have lived in Canada in the last six months, I’d be curious to count Bieber's days spent in the homeland in the last few years. Named after Pierre Juneau, the first president of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, a central figure in Canadian regulation policies that mandate that at least half of annual programming be of Canadian origin. The title of the very award itself is an ode to the promotion of Canadian arts. Still, there’s something inherently off-kilter about the way the Juno Awards celebrate home-grown talent. “I like to say I bend the industry, not let the industry bend my artists.” Why emerging talent doesn't have much of a chance in Canada “We’re not really paying attention to any infrastructure that’s been in place, and I think that’s what made us successful,” Kaytranada’s manager, Will Robillard Cole has said. The Grammy award-winning Haitian-Canadian record producer and DJ made a name for himself internationally by growing his base online before signing the British independent record label XL Recordings. Of course, there’s the Kaytranada school of thought that suggests that Canadian musicians don’t need industry anymore. Alternative rock’s Matthew Good, who never attended the ceremonies in the years he’s won, in 2009 called the awards “marketing warehouses for the United States.” The first-ever Black woman to win a Juno Award, Liberty Silver, has expressed her disappointments in the country’s slow goings in supporting a large pool of talent. “It took the United States and the rest of the world embracing me before Canada realized, ‘Oh, man, I guess this guy really is good.’ Unfortunately, that’s a sad history Canada has.” -Kardinal Offishall in The Globe and Mail Are establishments like the Juno Awards, and by extension the Canadian public, doing its part? ![]() What’s more, last month the Government of Canada announced a $70 million over a three-year period to Canadian Heritage for the Canada Music Fund in support of the live music sector. In Ontario, $2.5 million was invested in relief programs to help strengthen music in the province. The pandemic may have warped our collective sense of time, understandably, but have we gone back to 2002? With taxpayers pouring millions into supporting grassroots music annually, it would make more sense if the Juno Awards tried to complement those efforts by putting emerging acts first.Īs part of the 2021 budget, the federal government added $10 million to the Canada Music Fund in support of the production, promotion, and distribution of Canadian music. Last year's fan choice went to Avril Lavigne of " sk8er boi" fame. He’s nominated for five awards, including fan choice and artist of the year. Bieber is returning to perform for the first time since “Baby” was belted out in 2010. ![]()
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