Juno Winners To Be Announced June 29 Over CBC Digital Platforms
A June 29 virtual ceremony announcing all 42 category winners in the 2020 Juno Awards is will be broadcast on a variety of CBC digital platforms with a separate Hall of Fame ceremony set in the future as public gathering regs relax.
By Nick Krewen
Mark June 29 on your calendars: that’s the date that the winners of the 2020 Juno Awards are to be announced.
Allan Reid, president and CEO of CARAS, MusiCounts, confirmed yesterday that a virtual ceremony will be held on numerous CBC platforms ranging from social media, the CBC Facebook page, YouTube, and cbcmusic.ca/Junos, and streamed on Gem.
“We’re super excited to finally get to this point where we’re actually going to be able to honour all the 2020 recipients," Reid told FYIMusicNews in an exclusive interview. "We’re thrilled that we’re going to be able to announce the winners in all 42 categories for the Junos this year, which has been a long time coming.”
The ceremony, which begins at 7 p.m., won't be quite as elaborate as the awards show that was originally planned to be staged at Saskatoon's SaskTel Centre with Alessia Cara hosting. That all ended up being cancelled at the 11th hour by the federally mandated quarantines resulting from the current pandemic.
There will be three performances appearing on June 29 - The Dead South, who will be appearing from Saskatoon's Broadway Theatre, as well as Iskwe and Neon Dreams. The ceremony, estimated to last 80-90 minutes, will be hosted by CBC music personalities with guest presenters including actor/musician Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things; Toronto Raptors' Chris Boucher, soprano Measha Brueggergosman, Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault, Jessie Reyez, and Alexandra Streliski.
"The format is going to be a little more like the gala dinner in the sense that, unlike the Juno broadcast, which features six awards and 11 or 12 performances, this is going to have 42 awards, three performances and an In Memoriam segment," Reid explains. "We’ll also present the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award within the celebration as well.”
Two awards that won't be presented are the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, with Jann Arden and Pegi Cecconi previously announced as the respective recipients.
"We’re going to find the opportunity to do their inductions elsewhere, so whether that happens at the new Hall of Fame event or rolls into the 50th-anniversary celebrations is unknown right now."
Although the music industry will only be able to attend the proceedings virtually, Reid hopes that different factions will be able to celebrate the occasion together using platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet.
Reid says the separate Canadian Music Hall of Fame ceremony, held at Calgary's National Music Centre last fall, will be bumped to 2021 and the Juno 50th celebration, earlier announced to be staged at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena next March 28, are currently in flux.
For a refresher of the nominees, please click here.
