B.C.-born Beverly Hills 90210 star Jason Priestley hosts the Juno Awards at GM Place, the second time the annual Canadian music awards ceremony was held in Vancouver. Local girl Sarah McLachlan was the night’s big winner, taking all four awards she was nominated for: female vocalist of the year, album of the year (Surfacing), single of the year (“Building a Mystery”), and songwriter of the year for the same single, an award she shared with co-writer and album producer Pierre Marchand, who also won for best producer. The album had already won McLachlan a pair of Grammy Awards in the U.S.
The only semblance of competition for the former Haligonian was provided by Toronto rockers Our Lady Peace, who were up for five major awards and ended up with two for group of the year and the fan-voted rock album of the year for their platinum-selling Clumsy.
OLP had been scheduled to perform but lead singer Raine Maida was instead taken to hospital after throwing out his back and so singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, who won for best solo roots and traditional album for Other Songs, stepped in as a replacement. McLachlan, Jann Arden and local rockers Econoline Crush also all played live.
Paul Brandt of Calgary wrangled two statuettes, winning both male vocalist of the year and best country male vocalist. Country superstar Shania Twain -- whose albumCome On Over had already gone multiplatinum in North America, took home the prize for country female vocalist of the year. Fiddle-playing family Leahy also won two statues for instrumental artists and best new group.
Montrealers Bran Van 3000 picked up the best alternative album for Glee, while Holly McNarland was named best new solo artist.
Vancouver hip hop crew Rascalz refused to accept their best rap recording award for Cash Crop in protest of it and certain other awards not being handed out during the live CBC’s broadcast of the ceremony. Alleging that racism was a factor in the scheduling decision, the band released a statement saying: “In view of the lack of real inclusion of black music in this ceremony, this feels like a token gesture towards honoring the real impact of urban music in Canada. Urban music, reggae, R&B, and rap, that's all black music, and it's not represented. We decided that until it is, we were going to take a stance.”
(A different version of their Cash Crop single “Northern Touch” featuring guest rappers Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair also won for best rap recording the following year. This time Rascalz both accepted the award and performed the single live at a ceremony held in Hamilton.)
The previously combined blues/gospel category also became belatedly separate for this first time, with Colin James winning best blues album for National Steel and Steve Bell picking up the best gospel album for Romantics and Mystics.
Renowned producer David Foster was also named to the Canadian music hall of fame, and the crowd heard prerecorded tributes to the hitmaker from a dozen fellow luminaries ranging from Quincy Jones to Stevie Wonder, Gordon Lightfoot, Ronnie Hawkins and, surprisingly, even Wayne Gretzky.
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