The 2024 Juno Awards were about the future of Canadian music while honoring its history.
A quartet of actors who made major breakthroughs this year won the major awards presented on Sunday night's (March 24) CBC telecast live from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Punjabi-Canadian global star Karan Aujla won the TikTok Fan Choice Award, the ceremony's only fan-selected award. “Sometimes I can't believe I'm the same kid who lost my parents when I was in India, went to Canada and now I'm here!” said the BC-based artist, one of Billboard Canada's cover stars. “If you dream, make sure you dream big.”
Charlotte Cardin won album of the year for her album 99 Nights. The 2023 album took the Montreal artist to new crossover heights, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, while his popular single “Confetti” reached the top 10 of the Canadian Hot 100 and spent 35 weeks on the chart. It also scored her first US chart hit, and is currently on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. Cardin later performed the infectious earworm while confetti rained down from the ceiling.
Beaches, meanwhile, won team of the year. Accepting the award from Nova Scotia's Anne Murray, who holds the record for most Junos ever with 25, the Toronto band dedicated their speech to the next generation of rockers. “To all the young girls watching, start bands with your best friends!” They later closed the festivities with a cover of their biggest single “Blame Brett”.
Both Cardin and The Beaches won awards at the 2024 Juno Opening Night Awards last night (March 23) for pop album of the year and rock album of the year, respectively.
Wearing a white fur cape, TALK had a rock star moment performing his epic single “Run Away to Mars,” which reached No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart last year. The Ottawa-born artist, who has had over 400 million global streams, later picked up the breakthrough artist of the year award. In his speech, he spoke about the importance of funding the arts, shortly after Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St.-Onge announced that the government would increase the Canada Music Fund.
Some of the night's performances were moving towards the increasingly diverse and global future of Canadian music. Dressed in a stark white outfit with four back-up dancers in red, Aujla hit the stage early playing pop hits 'Admiring You' and 'Softly'. Both came from his album Making Memories, which made history as the highest-charting Punjabi debut ever on the Canadian Albums Chart. Ikky, who made the album with Aujla, acted as the hype man on an elevated platform.
On the cover of BillboardPunjabi Wave, AP Dhillon talked about his performance at the 2023 Junos and how he's been pushing to ensure popular Punjabi music gets a prolonged platform at the awards. Apparently, they kept their word.
This year's Junos also had the most Indigenous nominees in the awards' history. Anita Landback, Tanas Sylliboy, Sarah Prosper set the stage with a land recognition interspersed with a performance by Juno winner Jeremy Dutcher in Wolastoqey, who then joined Elisapie in a duet on an Inuktitut version of “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. Along with Aujla and others, it meant that the performances included at least six different languages, including English and French.
The Junos have struggled with star power in recent years — Drake has boycotted for the past half-decade, while chart-topper Tate McRae didn't attend to accept her two awards this year — but they've made up for it with an improved representation of what makes Canadian unique music.
This year they also paid tribute to the country's musical history.
The ceremony was hosted by pop star Nelly Furtado, who opened the ceremony with a fast-paced medley of her decades-long hits: “Say It Right,” “Maneater,” “Promiscuous,” “Give It To Me,” “I “M Like A Bird” — all from the 2000s and her new one with Dom Dolla, “Eat Your Man”.
Kardinal Offishall inducted “Our Rap Prime Minister” Maestro Fresh Wes into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The hip-hop hero had the first ever Canadian rap record on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Let Your Backbone Slide,” was the first-ever Rap Album of the Year winner at the Junos for Symphony in Effect in 1991 and is today. amid a wave of recognition for his place in the country's musical history. A taped video featured contributions from this year's winner, TOBi, legacy Canadian artists like Snow and American legends like Public Enemy's Chuck D. “Now, this music we love will never be undervalued,” he said. He later performed a medley of his hits including “Backbone”.
A special performance honored a handful of Canadian legends who died this year. Neoclassical Cebuano artist Alexandra Strelisky paid tribute to Karl Tremblay of Les Cowboys Fringants with an instrumental piano performance. Allison Russell, Aysanabee, William Prince, Shawnee Kish, Logan Staats, Julian Taylor then joined for beautiful renditions of Gordon Lightfoot's “If You Could Read My Mind” and The Band's “The Weight” for the late Robbie Robertson .
And actor Elliot Page presented the humanitarian award to Tegan and Sara, highlighting the importance of the important work of the Canadian Quinn sisters' Tegan and Sara Foundation for young queer people at a time when the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people are under threat, including from the government of Alberta. “If the world wasn't so hostile to 2SLGBTQ+, we'd see ourselves purely as musicians,” they said, adding “we love being gay. So gay.”
Here's our coverage of all the winners from Saturday's Juno Opening Night Awards.
Here are the nominees in the categories presented on the live telecast, with winners to be verified.
Juno TikTok Fan Choice
Charlotte Cardin, Cult Nation*The Orchard
Daniel Caesar, Republic*Universal
DVBBS, Ultra*Sony
Josh Ross, Universal
WINNER: Karan Aujla, Warner
Shubh, Mass Appeal*The Orchard
Tate McRae, RCA*Sony
The Weeknd, XO*Universal
ThxSoMch, Elektra*Warner
Walk from Earth, Golden Carrot* The Orchard
Album of the Year
Neo-RomanticismAlexandra Stréliski, Secret City*FAB
WINNER: 99 NightsCharlotte Cardin, Cult Nation*The Orchard
IT'S NEVER ENOUGH, Daniel Caesar, Republic*Universal
mirror, Lauren Spencer Smith, Universal
Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees, TALK, Capitol* Universal
Team of the Year
Arkells, Arkells Music*Universal
Loud Luxury, Armada*Sony
Nickelback, BMG*Warner/ADA
WINNER: The Beaches, AWAL*Independent
Walk from Earth, Golden Carrot* The Orchard
Top Artist of the Year
Connor Price, Independent
Karan Aujla, Warner
LU KALA, LVK/Amigo*AWAL
Sub, Independent
WINNER: TALK, Capitol*Universal
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
