If an awards ceremony takes place virtually, with no audience available to cheer on the winners, and no acceptance speeches, even patched from afar, do the awards still count? You can bet yes. Artists should not be penalized for the strange moments in which we live. A record is a record and Shawn Mendes set a truly historic record at the 49th Annual Juno Awards, which was held practically on Monday (June 29).
Mendes became the first artist in the history of the Juno Awards to win a single of the year three consecutive years. He won this year for “Señorita”, his sensual collaboration with Camila Cabello. He won the last two years with “There’s nothing holding me back” (2018) and “In My Blood” (2019). Anne Murray, Glass Tiger and Alanis Morissette had won the award two years in a row.
Mendes also became the second artist to win Artist of the Year for two consecutive years. The Weeknd won in 2015-16. This brings the Junos de Mendes collection to even 10 years old. The artist, who was born in Pickering, Ontario, is only 21 years old.
Alessia Cara, who was originally going to be the host of the show before the forced cancellation of the coronavirus, won three awards: Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year for her second album, The pains of growing upand songwriter of the year. She is the first woman to take the album of the year since Carly Rae Jepsen won in that category seven years ago for Kiss. Cara is the first woman to win songwriter of the year since Serena Ryder took the award six years ago.
Cara had been this year’s leading candidate, with six nods.
The Junos were originally scheduled for March 15 at the SaskTel Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Avril Lavigne won the Fan Choice award, the only award strictly voted by fans, for the third time. She had won it in 2005 and again last year. Only two other artists have won three or more times since the category was introduced in 2003. Justin Bieber leads with five awards. Michael Bublé also won it three times. (Bieber was among the nominees in that category this year.)
Torey Lanez became the first artist in Juno Awards history to win rap recording of the year (“Freaky”) and R&B / soul recording of the year (“Feel It Too”, a collaboration with Jessie Reyez and Tainy). Lanez had the second highest number of nominations of the year (five).
Billie Eilish’s hit debut album When we all fall asleep, where do we go? won the international album of the year. She also received that award at the Brit Awards in the UK on February 18. She won the Grammy for Album of the Year on January 26.
Bryan Adams took the adult contemporary album of the year for Shine a light. It is his 17th Juno, which places him third among all artists in Juno’s history, only behind Céline Dion and Murray. The album was also nominated for Album of the Year, but lost to Cara. Adams teamed up with Ed Sheeran to co-write the title track for Shine a light.
Lennon Stella took the award for best artist of the year. Neon Dreams won the innovative group of the year. (Neon Dreams had won the Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class award in 2017. They are the first act to graduate from that award to a competitive Juno.)
Loud Luxury took the group of the year award. Last year, they won the dance recording of the year award.
Cara, Neon Dreams, indigenous artist Iskwē and bluegrass ensemble The Dead South (who won the traditional roots album of the year) were featured during the show.
The program opened with a message of support for the global push for racial equality, and a rather remarkable moment of self-criticism. They noted that although the Junos were launched in 1970, it took 15 years before adding soul and reggae categories. Furthermore, they added, the first prize for rap was not awarded until 1991 and the first prize for indigenous music was not awarded until 1994.
There was no mention of Jann Arden, who was voted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this year.
The In Memoriam roster included such notable Canadian talents as Leon Redbone and Neil Peart of Rush.
Next year, Junos, 50, will perform in Toronto. The mayor of the frustrated show in Saskatoon willingly passed the baton, almost of course, to the mayor of Toronto.
