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FYI

Stars Crowd-Fund For Spirit Of The West's John Mann

A fundraising campaign for Spirit of the West singer John Mann is seeking an additional $5,000 to help pay for the musician’s medical and personal needs.

Stars Crowd-Fund For Spirit Of The West's John Mann

By External Source

Newfoundland singer-songwriter Alan Doyle has brought together a group of well-known Canadian musicians in an effort to help one of their own.


John Mann, frontman for Spirit of the West, has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Doyle says Mann is a big influence on his career and although musicians come together to raise funds for many causes, it’s rare to do it for one of their own. He says the music community in the country is a small one but everyone felt a will and desire to step up and help out.

Doyle, along with close to 50 Canadian musicians including Jim Cuddy, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson and fellow Newfoundlander Corey Tetford, re-recorded a popular song that Mann co-wrote with his band – "Home for a Rest."

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Peter Green, a local musician and producer, helped to produce the recording.

A go-fund me account has been set up in order to help raise some funds for Mann. So far the campaign has raised three-quarters of the $20,000 goal.

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Panos A. Panay
Raphaële Sohier

Panos A. Panay

Features

Recording Academy President Panos A. Panay on Canada, Diljit Dosanjh and the Grammys’ Global Future

The influential music executive returned to a place he has called home at NXNE for the Billboard Global Summit. Here's why it was particularly meaningful for him.

The music landscape is changing quickly, and Panos A. Panay, the President of the Recording Academy and the Grammys, is right in the middle of it.
This week (June 11), Panay interviewed Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh as part of the Billboard Summit at NXNE. For him, it represented a global shift in music where sounds carrying different cultures and languages are pushing against the "Anglo-American" mainstream. Celebrating the universality of music in the diverse city of Toronto holds special meaning for him.
Panay spent some formative years in Canada, and says in some ways he considers it as much like home as Cyprus, where he was born. It shaped how he sees the world and his career, and it's been important in his work at the Grammys, which is also going through changes. Since he started his job in 2021, along with CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Panay has been helping the Academy adapt to a new generation of artists, represent diversity and navigate the changing music scene.

Before he was at the Recording Academy, Panay founded the online platform Sonicbids, which brought him to NXNE many times. Again, it feels like coming home.

In this exclusive interview with Billboard Canada, Panos discusses Dosanjh, how the Grammys are changing and the future of Canadian music.

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