The Weeknd was awarded the Juno trophy for best album of the year on Monday evening. He had already won those for artist of the year, best author, best single and best pop album. Winning five of the six awards within his reach this year, The Weeknd reached a total of 22, ranking as the second most awarded artist in Juno Awards history (behind Anne Murray, who has 25). When his name was unveiled for the Best Album award (for Dawn FM), news of his absence was met with a very long moment of boos from the audience, preventing Tyler Shaw, at the presentation, from accepting the award. in his name. While the Torontonian has snubbed the Juno Awards every time in recent years, it seems the public is holding out hope that he will one day reappear to thank Canada for its support.
Young Tate McRae started the performance streak with a strong number. The one we compare to Billie Eilish or Olivia Rodrigo put the Junos up to date. A little later, rapper and singer AP Dillon was the first Punjabi artist to perform during the ceremony. “I was happy to represent my community here, it’s a feeling that money can’t buy,” commented the artist, all smiles, at a press conference after his appearance on stage. Anishinaabe artist Aysanabee, accompanied by the powwow singing and drumming group Northern Cree, delivered one of the most poignant and successful performances of the evening. Country singer-songwriter Tenille Townes has been magnificent. Later, Alexisonfire presented his song Sans Soleil, taken from his most recent album, Otherness. The group lowered the tempo thanks to a solid performance at the height of its prestige. Stunning Jessie Reyez was flawless, delivering an intense moment sometime after winning the R recording award
The whole evening was a long tribute to Nickelback, which we saw in the opening number, to whom actor Ryan Reynolds dedicated a retrospective video, and who had the honor of closing the evening with a performance. Above all, the evening was an opportunity to induct Nickelback into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. After complaining about only having two minutes of thank you time, Chad Kroeger began a series of speeches where everyone thanked a list of collaborators and loved ones. The band of Chad and Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake and Daniel Adair won their first Juno Award in 2001. And, 22 years later, the Albertans wrapped up Juno Awards night with a number where the band covered many of their great successes. While the ceremony’s other musical moments were rather soberly executed, the evening’s budget seems to have been spent largely on Nickelback’s medley, backed up by videos and lots and lots of flame throwing.
We’re celebrating 50 years of hip-hop music this year. The Juno Awards evening was an opportunity to mark the scope of the Canadian presence in the genre. If the Grammy awards did it in a big way, with all the gratin of American rap, the Juno awards also wanted to honor this musical style and did well – it was however disappointing not to see artists Quebec in this issue. Kardinal Offishall and Haviah Mighty were at the helm of a number during which many artists followed one another on stage, namely Choclair, the Toronto duo Dream Warriors, Maestro Fresh Wes, the pioneer Michie Mee, as well as TOBi, accompanied by DJs Mel Boogie on the decks. The number was dancing, electrifying and immersed us in a bubble of nostalgia while highlighting the current talent of Canadian hip-hop. This very beautiful moment of music ended with the victory of TOBi for the album or the rap EP of the year.
In terms of entertainment, the evening was entertaining. If his opening number focused on the pressure to offer a good performance as an animator, Simu Liu, who has already held this role, was rather effective, despite an overflow of numbers sung (and danced) in early evening. In addition to the nine performances, between those of Alexisonfire, Jessie Reyez or Nickelback, that was a lot. Fortunately, others have sometimes taken over. Avril Lavigne was one of the first to present artists for an issue. True to form, the singer was unrestrained when a member of the public, topless, was invited on stage with her. Ordering him to go away insulting him (without the production having time to cut the swear words), Lavigne put a little atmosphere in this rather agreed evening. She later received the fan award and was given the opportunity to jokingly return to the incident, warning not to cut her off this time. More seriously, she mentioned on the microphone that “the industry changes so much, but [her] community of admirers has been the most constant thing in [her] career”.
In terms of Quebec victories, the first evening of the Juno Awards was more successful than the main evening (where no artist from here was rewarded). The prize for the best French-language album was given to Les Louanges, for its album Crash. The group Voivod was awarded the prize for the metal/hard music album of the year thanks to Synchro Anarchy. The Montreal producer duo Banx
