Music

The 2024 Juno Awards looked to the future of Canadian music, while also honoring its history.

A quartet of acts who’ve had major breakthroughs this year won the major awards given out on the CBC-televised broadcast on Sunday night (March 24) live from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Punjabi-Canadian global star Karan Aujla won the TikTok Fan Choice award, the only fan-chosen award of the ceremony. “Sometimes I can’t believe I’m that same kid who lost my parents when I was in India, made my way to Canada, and now I’m here!” said the B.C.-based artist, one of Billboard Canada’s inaugural cover stars. “If you are dreaming, make sure you dream big.”

Charlotte Cardin won album of the year for her album 99 Nights. The 2023 album has propelled the Montreal-based artist to new crossover heights, hitting No. 3 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, while its popular single “Confetti” reached the top 10 of the Canadian Hot 100 and spent 35 weeks on the chart. It also earned her first American chart hit, and it is currently on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. Cardin later performed the infectious earworm while actual confetti rained from the ceiling.

The Beaches, meanwhile, won group of the year. Accepting the award from Nova Scotia’s own 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, go start bands with your best friends!” They later closed the festivities with a rendition of their major breakthrough single “Blame Brett.”

Both Cardin and The Beaches won awards at the 2024 Juno Opening Night Awards the night before (March 23) for pop album of the year and rock album of the year, respectively.

In a white fur cape, TALK had a rock star moment performing his epic single “Run Away to Mars,” which went to No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart last year. The Ottawa-born artist, who’s had over 400 million global streams, later took home the award for breakthrough artist of the year. In his speech, he talked about the importance of arts funding, just after Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St.-Onge announced the government would increase the Canadian Music Fund.

A number of the night’s performances motioned toward the increasingly diverse and global future of Canadian music. Dressed in a spiffy white outfit with a four backup dancers in red, Aujla performed early on, 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 hype man on an elevated platform.

In the BillboardPunjabi Wave cover story, AP Dhillon talked about his performance at the 2023 Junos ceremony and how he lobbied to ensure majorly popular Punjabi music would have a prolonged platform at the awards. Evidently, they’ve kept their word.

This year’s Junos also had the most Indigenous nominees in award history. Anita Landback, Tanas Sylliboy, Sarah Prosper set the stage with a land acknowledgment that intersected with a performance by Juno winner Jeremy Dutcher in Wolastoqey, who then joined in a duet with Elisapie on an Inuktitut version of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” Along with Aujla and others, it meant performances featured at least six different languages, including English and French.

The Junos has struggled with star power in recent years — Drake has boycotted the last half decade, while chart-topper Tate McRae was not in attendance to accept her two awards this year — they have made up for it with improved representation of what makes Canadian music unique.

This year, they also paid tribute to the country’s music history.

The ceremony was hosted by pop star Nelly Furtado, who opened the ceremony with a rapid-fire medley of her multiple decades of 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 Canadian rap record to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Let Your Backbone Slide,” was the first winner of the rap album of the year at the 1991 Junos for Symphony in Effect, and is currently amidst a wave of recognition for his place in the country’s music history. A pre-taped video featured contributions from this year’s winner, TOBi, legacy Canadian artists like Snow and American legends like Chuck D of Public Enemy. “Now, this music we love won’t ever be underestimated,” he said. He later performed a medley of his hits, including “Backbone.”

A special performance honoured a handful of Canadian legends who died this year. Neo-classical Quebecois artist Alexandra Streliski paid tribute to Karl Tremblay of Les Cowboys Fringants with an instrumental piano performance. Then Allison Russell, Aysanabee, William Prince, Shawnee Kish, Logan Staats, Julian Taylor all joined together 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, stressing the importance of the Canadian Quin sisters’ Tegan and Sara Foundation’s important work for young queer people at a time when the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people are under threat, including from the Alberta government. “If the world were not so hostile to 2SLGBTQ+ we would see ourselves purely as musicians,” they said, adding “we love being gay. So gay.”

Here’s our report on all the winners from Saturday’s Opening Night Juno Awards.

Here are the nominees in the categories that were presented on the live telecast, with winners checked.

TikTok Juno 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 off the Earth, Golden Carrot*The Orchard

Album of the Year

Néo-Romance, Alexandra Stréliski, Secret City*F.A.B.

WINNER: 99 Nights, Charlotte Cardin, Cult Nation*The Orchard

NEVER ENOUGH, Daniel Caesar, Republic*Universal

Mirror, Lauren Spencer Smith, Universal

Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees, TALK, Capitol*Universal

Group of the Year

Arkells, Arkells Music*Universal

Loud Luxury, Armada*Sony

Nickelback, BMG*Warner/ADA

WINNER: The Beaches, AWAL*Independent

Walk off the Earth, Golden Carrot*The Orchard

Breakthrough Artist of the Year

Connor Price, Independent

Karan Aujla, Warner

LU KALA, LVK/Amigo*AWAL

Shubh, Inrependent

WINNER: TALK, Capitol*Universal

This article originally appeared in Billboard Canada.