Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in English
It was a bittersweet night for Tate McRae at the 54th annual Juno Awards in Vancouver, as the singer won four out of the five awards for which she was nominated but missed the event because she was thousands of miles away — in Brazil, already committed to playing Lollapalooza. However, she was the night’s big winner, taking album (“Think Later”), pop album, single (“Exes”), and artist of the year.
McRae, who has climbed to arena status in three short years and now has six Junos, was tied for the most nominations with country artist Josh Ross, whose star has also shot up in two years, recently opening Jelly Roll’s Canadian tour, receiving high praise onstage from the headliner and singing a duet with him. So, Ross might’ve lost in four categories but taking home country album (“Complicated”) will certainly keep that trajectory going.
“I just wanted my records to be heard around the world and I’m very grateful, this being my first project…” said the Nashville-based Ross, adding, “I’m proud to be Canadian and I think it’s time that we get back to our Canadian roots and remember that friends are better than enemies.”
The line is in reference to the quickly dismantled goodwill that Canada has always shared with America, until an offhanded remark from President Trump about annexing Canada became his obsession — not to mention imposing higher tariffs, putting false blame on the country for the U.S. fentanyl problem, and calling it “one of the nastiest countries to deal with.” All this has had the opposite desired effect, reigniting the kind of Canadian pride usually reserved for Canada Day (July 1). This was evident at the Juno Awards Broadcast last night (Sunday) at Rogers Arena.
The two-hour show included the last-ever performance from the 2025 Canadian Music Hall of Fame Inductees Sum 41, which just disbanded after its worldwide “Tour of the Setting Sum” but closed out the awards with a medley of “Landmines,” “Fat Lip”, “Still Waiting “and “In Too Deep.” Canadian icon Anne Murray — who holds the record for the most Juno wins — sporting a blinged-out red Team Canada hockey jersey and her Order of Canada pin to accept her Lifetime Achievement Award, saying she never moved to the U.S. because “Canada was my safe haven, my safety blanket, my light at the end of the tunnel. And it still is.”
Hosted by Vancouver’s own Michael Bublé, the show opener alone in many ways epitomized what Canada is about. The multiplatinum artist sang a medley of his hits “Feeling Good,” “Haven’t Met You Yet” and “Home,” along with hip hop pioneer Maestro Fresh Wes, Jonita Gandhi singing in Punjabi; Elisapie in Inuktituk, and Roxane Bruneau in French, as well as English, and then all five coming together for the closer in English.
“It will all be alright because we came home tonight,” Bublé sang in the final lyric. “Yeah, we’re coming back home,” before he set the tone for the evening:
“That was really beautiful; I got goosebumps. I feel so lucky to have been joined by these incredible artists. Thank you so much. You guys know I’m a hometown kid — I’m a hometown kid who never left, and as I stand here and I look out at my fellow artists, in a sold-out arena with millions of watching at home, I’m proud to be Canadian. I’m proud that when they go low, we get high — we go high,” he quips, “It’s kind of the same thing.
“Bottom line, we love this country. We love it and when you love something, you show up for it and we always will. We will because we’re formidable, because we’re fearless, because we don’t just acknowledge our differences, we embrace them. Because they don’t just make us stronger, they make us a helluva lot more interesting. We’re artists; we’re teachers; we’re healthcare workers, we’re farmers, we’re fisherman, we’re the north; the Pacific; we’re the Atlantic; we’re the Great Lakes; we’re the Rocky Mountains; and we are the wide-open spaces.
“Folks, we’re one of a kind. We are beautiful. We are the greatest nation on Earth,” he concluded, pausing as the arena continued to cheer, “and we are not for sale.”
And with that, Bublé said he was here to “get this party started,” and fellow Vancouverite bbno$ — who earlier wore a giant white toilet on the otherwise normal red carpet and still had “toilet paper” wrapped around his arm — leapt onstage to pump up the festivities, rapping “It Boy” with a colorful troupe of drag performers including Canada’s Drag McRae, Race winner Priyanka. He later won the coveted fan choice category, beating leading contenders McRae, the Weeknd and Shawn Mendes. The says-anything “jazzy Eminem,” ended his speech with “also, Elon Musk is a piece of garbage,” the only name-checked political statement of the night.
Even at the Saturday evening gala dinner, attended by about 2000 industry and nominees, at which the majority of the awards are handed out, no one mentioned the T word or E word.
The televised awards (on CBC) only gave out eight awards, between the aforementioned performances as well as those by Josh Ross, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Aqylia, Nemahsis, Tia Wood, Peach Pit, Chani Nattan, Inderpal Moga & Jazzy B joined by GMINXR.
All-female rock band the Beaches, who last year won best group and album and then sold out their hometown summer amphitheatre show at Budweiser Stage, received the first award of the night, again for group of the year.
The girl power continued with Palestinian-Canadian Nemahsis winning breakthrough artist, adding the alternative album (“Verbathim”) win she got on Saturday. Open about the Islamophobia she has experienced, she really has now broken through. “I’ve been wearing a hijab for 20-plus years. All I ever wanted was to turn on Family Channel or YTV and just see somebody who looks like me. I didn’t think it would take this long,” she said. Her sentiment also shows how Canada embraces all cultures and beliefs.
Perhaps it was Canadian too that one of the coveted TV spots was allotted to the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award, instead of, say, the long overdue brand new category, Songwriter of the Year (Non-Performer) — which was won by Lowell (Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “Bodyguard) — or the history-making South Asian South Asian music recording of the year, which also ordinarily would have been on air but the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences likely knew that the ultimate winner, AP Dhillon (for The Brownprint), would not be able to attend.
Producer/songwriter Boi-1da who has 19 Grammy nominations and one win, best rap song for Drake’s “God Plan,” plus another 20 Grammy-winning albums he’s contributed to, received the Juno’s International Achievement Award. He has worked with Rihanna, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Jack Harlow but he reserved his highest flowers for Drake, with whom they started from the bottom to the top. In his speech, he called his long-time collaborator “The greatest rapper of all time, the greatest artist of all time. And he’s from Canada.”
American’s Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte crossed the border to induct their long-time pals in Sum 41, who are ending their career after selling over 15 million albums, and achieving countless Billboard singles, a Grammy Award nomination and two Junos wins. A video tribute to the band included words from Elvis Costello, Tommy Lee, Run DMC, and a punk legend, whom frontman Deryck Whibley, referenced in the group’s acceptance speech.
“The great Iggy Pop told us one time, ‘Forget who you think you are, and always just be who you really are. No matter what you do in life, be yourself, believe in yourself and, above all, stay persistent.”
In a way that sums up Canada too. If anything these past few months have taught us, it’s to be ourselves.
See full list of winners here.
