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FYI

The Billboard Canada FYI Bulletin: Stan Rogers Remembered In New Collection

Stan Rogers's legacy revived with new 5-disc collection, SOCAN & SiriusXM honour 5 Black Canadian singers, and a new program brings joy to kids with the blues.

Stan Rogers

Stan Rogers

Courtesy Photo

Stan Rogers Remembered

Stan Rogers is the focus of a new book and 5-disc album collection released on the Borealis imprint, now owned by Linus Ent. Known for songs such as “Northwest Passage,” “The Mary Ellen Carter” and “Barrett's Privateers,” the Canadian folk icon was killed in an air disaster 40 years ago, but his legacy continues with Stanfest, the annual Stan Rogers Folk Festival held in Canso, Nova Scotia, and a Canada Post stamp issued in 2021 in honour of the singer-songwriter who sang about fishers, farmers, explorers and, of course, privateers.

Curiously, he has never been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In 2019, Rogers was posthumously named into Canada’s Songwriters Hall of Fame.


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The book of sheet music is packaged together with 49 recordings from three albums on five vinyl discs including the re-release of For The Family first issued only months after his passing, and for the ever vinyl edition of his Coffee House to Concert Hall and Home In Halifax. Be warned, the limited 1K-run edition is not inexpensive. On the IDLA website, it rings in at $249.99, on Bandcamp it’s $259.99 and Amazon.ca has it at $289.99.

New Choir Brings Cheer To Kids Suffering The Blues

SING! Toronto International Vocal Arts Festival has implemented a vocal arts program in Toronto to bring kids together with an ensemble of Top Gun vocal coaches. Among them: are Jeannie Wyse and Joseph Angelo from the Randolph Academy. Rev. Latoya Hall-Downer is a gospel vocal artist, minister and choir director, and this past summer Melanie Durant, trained at the Royal Conservatory and collaborator with artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Choclair and Common. Billboard Canada FYI columnist Bill King is one of the orchestrators of the initiative. He narrates the following video.

SOCAN Foundation Names 4th Annual Black Music Award Winners

Created to recognize black music creators in Canada, the annual offers five winners a $10K purse to develop their careers with additional support offered by SiriusXM.

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They are:

DVBLM (pronounced “Double M”), a Torontonian with noticeable Caribbean roots.

Liza, an Ethiopian-Canadian working in the neo-soul arena.

Myles Castello, a GTA-based alt-R&B singer.

NAIIM, a Montreal-born artist who blends rap, pop and R&B while embracing his Somaliland and Canadian roots.

Savannah Ré,a three-time consecutive Juno Award winner in the Traditional R&B/Soul Recording category.

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H.E.R.
Steven Moran
H.E.R.
Awards

See Who Was Nominated — and Who Was Passed Over — in Oscars’ 2025 Music Categories

This is the fifth year in a row that one or more non-English language songs has been nominated for best original song.

Diane Warren received her 16th Oscar nomination for best original song on Thursday (Jan. 23) — a tally equaled by only three other songwriters in the 91-year history of the category. Sammy Cahn leads with 26 nods, followed by Johnny Mercer with 18 and Paul Francis Webster, also with 16. Warren was nominated this year this year for “The Journey,” sung by H.E.R. in The Six Triple Eight.

Moreover, this is the eighth year in a row Warren has been nominated, which enables her to tie Cahn for the longest continuous streak of nominations in this category. Cahn was nominated eight years running from 1954 to 1961.

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