Into The Music
Canada’s biggest night in music has arrived. The 55th Juno Awards are happening right now in Hamilton, Ontario, at the TD Coliseum, and the early results are painting a picture of a Canadian music industry that is more diverse, more confident, and more interesting than it has been in years.
The night’s biggest pre-ceremony story was already written at the Juno Gala on March 28, where Tate McRae swept four awards without even showing up to collect them. That story has its own energy. But the broadcast ceremony is doing something more interesting: it is using its biggest moments to honor artists who built what everybody else is standing on.
Nelly Furtado is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame tonight, and the tribute assembled to honor her is genuinely something. Alessia Cara, Jully Black, Shawn Desman, and Tanya Tagaq are all performing in her honor. The range of those names alone tells you how wide Furtado’s shadow stretches. She was not a one-era artist. From “I’m Like a Bird” to “Maneater” to her later experimental work, she kept changing without ever losing the thread of what made her compelling. The Hall of Fame induction is overdue.
Joni Mitchell is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. Sarah McLachlan and Allison Russell are performing a tribute to her. Organizers held out hope that Mitchell herself might perform, depending on her health, which underlines what has always been true about her: even the idea of her presence changes a room.
Daniel Caesar won Songwriter of the Year and is also receiving the International Achievement Award. He is performing tonight. His album “Superpowers” made a real case for him as one of the more important voices operating right now in that space where R&B meets something harder to categorize. The double recognition feels right.
Other gala winners include Debby Friday for Dance Recording of the Year, Cameron Whitcomb for Country Album of the Year, and Alex Cuba, who made history by winning the inaugural Latin Music Recording of the Year award. That last one is the kind of institutional acknowledgment that takes a long time coming and then feels obvious once it happens. Canadian Latin music has been there. The category finally caught up.
Billy Talent received the Juno Humanitarian Award. They have been doing serious work outside of music for a long time, and the recognition is warranted.
Comedian Mae Martin is hosting the ceremony. Hamilton is the host city. It is the 55th edition of these awards, and the ceremony is doing what the Junos have always done at their best: taking a genuine survey of where Canadian music actually is, rather than just rewarding whoever sold the most copies. That is a harder thing to do than it sounds.
