Billboard Canada FYI Bulletin: Juno Awards Pull Four Categories Including Reggae [Opinion Column]

The Canadian Press was the first to report that the Juno Awards are pulling four categories from next year's event” as part of a wider review of Canada's biggest music awards show.”

In a letter obtained by CP, organizers told committee members last week of plans to put on "hiatus" reggae recording, children's album, Christian/gospel album and international album of the year.

As per CP, The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) says the decision is part of a "broader set of updates" yet to be announced.

Reggae artists have reportedly already been contacting Junos organizers to express their frustration and wondered if anyone from their community had been consulted. The Junos have had a long fraught relationship with Black music, including a 1998 boycott of the show by Vancouver hip-hop group The Rascalz, who said "Urban music, reggae, R&B and rap: that's all Black music and it's not represented at the Junos. We decided that until it is, we are going to take a stance." Later, Drake boycotted the awards after hosting the show in 2011 but being shut out of every category he was nominated in.

These criticisms aside, I would argue CARAS needs to take a hatchet and not a scalpel to the ballooning list we have today.

For the children’s album and Christian/gospel, the former has had a long and successful run and is probably redundant in today’s small screen world, and the Christian/gospel entrants can compete in several of the pop/rock and MOR categories available to them if their social media/and or streaming metrics make them contenders. As for the international artist category, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé and Post Malone aren’t going to bat an eyelid at being left out of our annual celebration of Canadian music.

Other categories that could potentially stand transformation or combination include Album Artwork, Global Music Album, and perhaps merging the Traditional and Contemporary Roots Album categories into one. The four Classical categories can easily be whittled down to two – Classical Composition and Classical Album. The Small and Large ensemble nominations though deserving in an award show devoted to serious music, here the four categories seem a bit rich in modern times. The same can be said for Jazz’s three categories that could easily be compressed into one Jazz Album of the Year.

And since the Academy is reviewing its options, now might be the time to update the format – and this I leave to the organizers who must know what needs to be done to get it right.

The 2025 Juno Awards are scheduled to take place in Vancouver on March 30.

Newfoundland & Labrador Celebrate Their Own

Maritime music continues to express a distinctive voice and those from Newfoundland and Labrador celebrated in earnest on Saturday, at the 2024 MusicNL Awards, staged at the St. John's Convention Centre. All told, 20 trophies were presented with Rum Ragged leading with three awards, followed by Ana Luísa Ramos, With Violet, and Kellie Loder with two each.

Further reading about the event and the complete winners list can be found on the association's website.

Below are some highlights from this year’s winners’ list that are as distinctive as they are different. Take Port-Aux-Poutines' song story about the Acadian experience to the extraordinary musicality of Ana Luisa Ramos to Summer Bennett and Kellie Loder's separate views of life in modern times.

Album of the Year: Rum Ragged – Gone Jiggin’

Alternative Artist: With Violet

Fans Choice Entertainer: Jason Benoit

Francophone Artist: Port-Aux-Poutines

Folk/Roots Artist: Kellie Loder

Indigenous Artist: Summer Bennett

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS544lbR8X0\ expand=1 site_id=26263842]

Global Artist: Ana Luisa Ramos

Rising Star: Andrew Rodgers