Rapper Drake performs at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Oct. 24, 2013.DEBORAH BAIC/The Globe and Mail
It's shaping up to be a rookie's year at the 2015 Junos, with breakout house-pop artist Kiesza earning two awards at Saturday night's pre-broadcast gala dinner. But the biggest prizes of the event – including single, artist and album of the year – will be given out during Sunday night's broadcast, airing live from Hamilton at 7 p.m. eastern time.
Kiesza has a chance at two more, but faces stiff competition. Another rookie act, Toronto's reggae-copping troupe Magic! could take home the most awards. They led nominations this year with five, won one last night, and could walk away with another pair tonight. Or maybe the Canadian music industry could lean on a faithful CanCon crutch, handing stalwart singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen three tonight.
There is also a curious underdog in the Juno race: maybe, just maybe, it will be Drake's year.
In most circles, that statement would be confounding; lately, every year has been Drake's year. But not so much at the Juno Awards.
While he's won three Rap Recording of the Year Junos and a handful of others, Drake, one of Canada's biggest cultural ambassadors this side of Y2K, has yet to take home a major award outside of the confines of his genre. Even when he hosted in 2011, he was snubbed for all six awards for which he was nominated.
But change could be afoot. Despite a quiet 2014, during which he dropped only a handful of songs, Toronto's hip-hop superstar has a strong chance at taking home two top Junos: Single of the Year and Fan Choice Award. A Fan Choice win would be easy – among Canadian artists, his global-stage swagger is unmatched, except perhaps by Justin Bieber, who won last year but is not nominated tonight. And a Single of the Year win for 2013's Hold On, We're Going Home would be a much-deserved – and much-delayed – nod from the Canadian recording establishment.
The broadcast airs tonight on CTV. Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard is hosting the awards. His band will perform at the ceremony alongside Kiesza and Magic!, the Hammer's own three-time Juno winners Arkells, dance mainstay deadmau5, and platinum-selling artists Bobby Bazini and The Weeknd, among others.
Twenty years after the album Jagged Little Pill rocketed her into the spotlight – and won her four Grammys and eight Junos over two years – Alanis Morissette is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and will give a special performance.
The Junos so far
To save broadcast time, most of the 42 awards were actually given out Saturday night, including the pop, rap, jazz, dance and Francophone albums of the year. Six major awards will be given out during Sunday's broadcast, including Fan Choice and Single, Album, Artist, Breakthrough Artist and Rock Album of the Year.
Magic! won Breakthrough Group of the Year Saturday night. Toronto's Bahamas took home both the Songwriter of the Year and Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Bahamas is Afie. Hometown heroes Arkells won group of the year, and Hammer-area ex-pat Caribou won Electronic Album of the Year for Our Love. Lights won Pop Album of the Year for Pretty Machines.
Polaris Music Prize winner Tanya Tagaq, The Globe and Mail's 2014 Artist of the Year, won Aboriginal Album of the year for Animism, but lost the Alternative Album of the Year award to the self-titled debut from Toronto's July Talk. Adam Messinger, who's produced songs for both Magic! And Iggy Azalea, won the Jack Richardson producer of the year award. (For a complete list of Saturday's winners, click here.)
Iconic Toronto prog-rock band Rush, nine-time Juno winners, received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for their career-spanning philanthropic efforts.
How the awards work
Winners are largely determined by members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, or CARAS, membership of which is open to just about anyone in the country's music industry.
Most Juno nomination shortlists are decided by various combinations of academy members, though nine categories – arguably the most popular, including artist, album, rock and pop albums of the year – also weigh sales data into the nominations as a more empirical measure of success.
The academy has also begun to include digital measurements of artist influence and success, including through streaming and social networks, as part of the nomination process. "Now that streaming data has become more readily available in Canada, discussions on including streaming data will be discussed for next year," said Laura Bryan, CARAS's senior manager in charge of awards, in an e-mail.
The differences between categories can be confusing. The Fan Choice Award includes artists who haven't put out new material since winning last year, like Arcade Fire. And while most categories have a 14.5-month-long eligibility period for release dates, from September 2013 to mid-November 2014, the Single of the Year Award window is 18 months. "Sometimes we see songs on albums really gain popularity and traction after an album is released and we want to ensure we don't miss out on honouring them," Ms. Bryan said.
Hence, Drake's Hold On, We're Going Home, released in August 2013, can be nominated for a 2015 Juno. Confusingly, the album it came from, Nothing Was The Same, was released after the single came out, and won the rap album category in 2014. It's a curious double-dip by the academy – how did the massive single not make the cut last year? – but considering the song's lasting radio, sales, and critical success, it could mean a clear path for a Juno for the rapper.
It would certainly be the populist winner; according to analytics gathered by Twitter, Drake's song has been the most-discussed leading up to the awards show. But Kiesza and Magic! both saw massive international success in 2014, too. It could be anyone's game.
Just don't expect Drake to show up. If you're reading this, it's too late: he'll most likely be across the world, fresh off a Saturday concert in Dubai. But he's been notably absent from the awards since the great snub of 2011 anyway. This year, maybe, the Junos might change that.