While the Juno Awards will celebrate its 40th anniversary one year from now, it was actually in 1970, not 1971, that the gala music ceremony was born. From humble beginnings - a small banquet held at Toronto's St. Lawrence Hall - to the glitzy extravaganza this year in St. John's, Juno and the Canadian music industry have grown impressively, like a Randy Bachman beard or a Ronnie Hawkins self-perpetuated legend. To paraphrase Neil Young, we're going back to Canada, on a journey through the musical past.
1970: The RPM magazine-sponsored Gold Leaf Awards - elongated metronomes made from walnut wood - are handed out to winners in a dozen categories in Toronto. Some 250 musicians and music-industry figures devour all the free sandwiches even before Which Way You Goin' Billy?, by the Poppy Family, is chosen the year's best-produced middle-of-the-road album.
1971: In honour of CRTC chairman Pierre Juneau, the awards are now nicknamed "Juno." Anne Murray wins the statuette for best female vocalist, which, for all intents and purposes, should be nicknamed the "Anne Murray."
1973: Some 1,500 attend the ceremony at the Inn on the Park. After receiving an award, a member of the rock group Edward Bear quips "Does this mean I get to meet Anne Murray?"
1975: The Junos are televised for the first time, on CBC. The process of determining winners is based on record sales and an RPM readers poll.
1977: The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) takes over the Junos from co-founders Stan Klees and Walt Grealis. The broadcast, according to The Globe and Mail's Paul McGrath, was marred by CBC-scripted dialogue that left musicians ill at ease and made for "tedious television."
1984: The award presentation is moved to December, with an eye toward Christmas-boosted record sales. CARAS wrests control of the live program from CBC.
1986: Glass Tiger sweeps a ceremony marked by interesting fashion choices. Singer-songwriter Jane Siberry wore black ankle socks tucked into little Peter Pan boots topped with fuchsia leg-warmers. Bald rocker Kim Mitchell fascinatingly does not wear his trademark ball cap.
1988: After 1987, it was decided to move the annual awards back to the spring. Because of the changeover, no awards are handed out in 1988. Anne Murray doesn't know what to do with herself.
1991: The ceremony leaves Toronto for the first time, heading to Vancouver. A category for rap music makes is debut, and, fittingly, Paul Shaffer hosts the ceremony.
1992: Bryan Adams, who earlier in the year ruffled feathers with his criticism of Canadian-content regulations, is voted by the public as the year's top entertainer. The win cuts CARAS, who snubbed Adams, like a knife.
1995: The Junos move to Hamilton's Copps Coliseum for three years.
2000: A new statuette - a fluid, distinctly feminine human form - is unveiled. Juno co-founder Klees, who designed the original award, dismisses the new trophy as a "girly thing."
2002: The ceremony begins its tour of the country, travelling to St. John's. The broadcast, hosted by the zany, harmless men of Barenaked Ladies, earns its highest ratings in years.
2004: Man! She feels like a Maple Leaf. In Ottawa, Shania Twain is booed when she wears a Leafs logo (she wears logos for each of the Canadian NHL franchises).
2010: At St. John's, Bryan Adams receives a Juno humanitarian award, because of his charitable work. April Wine is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, because they "like to rock."
Brad Wheeler