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A Leaf In the House of Sens
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Shania Twain hosted the broadcast in 2003 and treated viewers to six glorious, glamorous, hockey team-themed costumes. She dared to appear on stage in the Ottawa Senators’ very arena in a sequined Leafs jersey. (That does impress us much.)
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Bryan Adams and Tina Turner
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Their explosive live performance of "It’s Only Love" at the 1985 Juno Awards is one of the greatest performances in Juno history.
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Stompin’ Tom Takes a Stand
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Here’s Stompin’ Tom Connors at the ‘73 awards, where he picked up the Country Male Vocalist of the Year Juno. It was one of many — from 1971 to 1976, Connors took home the award every year. But at a news conference following the 1978 awards, Connors announced he would return his Junos as a protest against rewarding "Juno jumpers" — artists who didn’t live in Canada. Connors had earlier withdrawn his nomination as Country Male Vocalist of the Year.
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Treaty Acknowledgment
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In 2017, Buffy Sainte-Marie was the first person to give a treaty acknowledgment on the Juno Awards broadcast. The Ottawa awards were held on the unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe nation.
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Literally
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She had a hit called “Like A Bird”, so 2007 host Nelly Furtado dressed as a bird and flew onto the stage. She made history that night as the first contender with multiple nominations to win in every category they were nominated.
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The Bilking of Aubrey Graham
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As host, Furtado took home every award she was up for. But Drake lost across the board - all five categories -- when he hosted in 2011. It was a dark day in Juno history.
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Chavril
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It was the date heard 'round the world. Canadian rock royalty Chad Kroeger of Nickleback and Avril Lavigne posed on the red carpet at the 2016 Juno Awards in Calgary — the year after they ended their two-year marriage.
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Rough Trade
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As per the Juno folks' request, there was no crotch-grab in Rough Trade's performance for the '82 event — in rehearsal, at least. But on the live broadcast, lead singer Carole Pope grabbed her crotch during a suggestive line in "High School Confidential", shocking (some of) the nation and pioneering the crotch grab before MJ or Madonna.
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And Then It Goes Back
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Drizzy and Bieber joined Nikki Yanofsky and K'naan on stage at the 2010 Juno Awards for a rendition of "Waving Flag".
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Send Backstreet Back
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The Backstreet Boys won the award for bestselling record at the 2000 Junos. This is a controversial statement, but when they send their Backstreet Boys over here to collect a Juno, they’re not sending their best people. They’re sending their AJs, they’re sending their Howies. And some, we assume, are good people. Claiming that they had prior engagements, the rest of the group side-stepped the Junos. Even Kevin skipped out.
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Let It Slide
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In 1991, Canada’s first hip-hop star, Maestro Fresh-Wes, took home the first Juno ever awarded for rap. He fended off tough competition from fellow nominees, including Dream Warriors and Spunkadelic, to win Rap Recording of the Year. To drive home rap’s rising popularity, MC Hammer performed at the awards after winning the International Album of the Year Juno.
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Big Time
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The list of live performers at the 2006 Junos reads like a festival lineup: Coldplay, Bryan Adams, Michael Bublé, the Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback, Bedouin Soundclash, Broken Social Scene, Massari, and Buck 65 (pictured).
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Live From Toronto
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The Junos were first televised across Canada in 1975. Ottawa-born Paul Anka (pictured with Lorna Luft and a wild fur), famous for hits like “Diana” and “My Way”, hosted and performed. Susan Jacks, Andy Kim, Diane King, Anne Murray and the Stampeders also played the live broadcast.
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Absolute Pioneers
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You’ve seen the Junos presented on TV. But what you might not know about is the gala dinner that happens the night before the TV broadcast event. At the gala, they hand out most of the Juno Awards. Only the winners of the big categories with the star nominees are announced on the live broadcast, which is sprinkled with skits, special appearances, and live performances. Even though the Junos had finally established a rap category in 1991, by 1998, the award was still being presented at the gala, not on the TV show, which hindered the visibility of Canadian rap stars. Why was the rap award handed out at the gala? Well, the Van City group Rascalz alleged that racism was a factor. On that basis, they declined the 1998 Juno Award for Best Rap Recording for their record, ‘Cash Crop’. The Juno Awards moved the Rap category to the main ceremony the following year.
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Just Alanis
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Here's Alanis in 1992 accepting the Juno for Most Promising Female Vocalist. In four short years, mall bopper Alanis disappeared. In her place, Alanis Morissette, angst rocker of the gods, appeared. When she accepted her 1996 Juno for Rock Album of the Year for her international smash hit album 'Jagged Little Pill', she said, "Most people's growth is done in private and an artist's growth is done in public, and I thank Canada as a country for accepting that in me." Ms. Morissette was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 2015 Juno Awards in Hamilton.
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Prime Time With the Prime Minister
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Classical guitarist Liona Boyd (pictured) is a five-time Juno winner. At the 1981 ceremony, her date, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, inducted Joni Mitchell into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
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Gordon Lightfoot
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Orillia-born folk singer Gordon Lightfoot, in a classically cut tuxedo, accepted his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Junos in 1986 from Bob Dylan. Dylan wore one dangling pierced earring, a blazer made of glitter, leather racing gloves, and a perm. For real.
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Pammy
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Quintessential bombshell and Canadian charmer Pamela Anderson hosted the 2006 event from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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Canada’s Disco Diva
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Patsy Gallant picked up the Female Vocalist of the Year Juno at the 1978 awards. She also performed as part of one of the most impressive and eclectic lineups in Juno history. It included Oscar Peterson, Guy Lombardo, Group of the Year winners Rush, Burton Cummings, Lisa Dal Bello, the Good Brothers, Robbie and Cheryl Ray, Grant Smith, and Dan Hill, the "Sometimes When We Touch" hitmaker who took home five Junos that night.
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Do Not Diss The Offishall
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Even in 2006, as Drake was beginning to doodle around with mixed tapes, predominantly Black Juno nominees had to fight for their emerging genres' visibility at the Juno Awards. "To me, it's really atrocious what they do to hip hop in this country and what they do for the artists," Kardinal Offishall said in a 2006 statement. The nominee, presenter and performer said that he wouldn't be part of the Junos in the future. "It's not even that it's embarrassing, it's just disappointing. It doesn't matter what you do in this country. For me anyway, they don't recognize what I do. It's just a bunch of garbage so I won't be a part of it anymore."
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Leonard Cohen
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The nine-time Juno winner attended the 1973 ceremony with Rebecca de Mornay, pictured. Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 1991 Juno Awards. In his eerie, thrilling acceptance speech, he quoted his lyrics, "My friends are gone, and my hair is grey, I ache in the places where I used to play, and I'm crazy for love, but I'm not coming on, I'm just paying my rent every day in the tower of song."
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Let's Go Streaking!
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Alanis Morissette hosted the 2004 event and got "naked" at the end of the show in a nod to her video for "Thank U", in which she also appears subtly naked.
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Every Bit Of That Award
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Okay, longtime Bieber fans, we all remember T.T.B.P. (The Time Before 'Purpose'). This is the era before Beiber's seminal 2015 "debut grown-up record". It was a time when the teenie bop idol of 'My World 2.0' would be booed for his lameness, bangs, and/or market oversaturation. It's not Bieber's fault that he won the Juno Fan Choice Award in 2013. It's not his fault he was booed for it. And Serena Ryder was not here for it. The following year in her 2014 acceptance speech for the Songwriter of the Year Juno, she told the audience firmly, "I really think that Justin Bieber is an amazing musician, and he deserved every bit of that award. He's been working his ass off his entire life, and we need to support him." Serena Ryder's right again.
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We Set The Bar High
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Canadian music legend Sarah McLachlan was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at the 2017 Juno Awards. In her acceptance speech, she said Canada is a country “where the rights of girls and women are respected, where people of all ethnicities, genders and sexual identities can stand together as one. Where diversity is cherished. Where the arts are revered. Where people being polite is still an important thing. We Canadians, we’re far from perfect, but we have a lot to offer the world and we have to continue to set the bar high.”
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Time To Recognize
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Gord Downie took home the Songwriter of the Year Juno in 2017 for 'Secret Path', a musical illumination of a long-festering wound suffered by the people who have been here since before Canada was Canada. In his pre-recorded acceptance speech, he said, "For recognizing that we're not completely Canada yet. For seeing we have friends, our fellow countrymen and women, who are in big trouble. For recognizing our friends who were here before us, at least for thousands of years." The Junos, and Canadian culture as a whole, has been challenged to recognize, improve, and create. Looking back, we can see that we have done it before, and we'll do it again.
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