{"id":5578,"date":"2014-03-30T20:30:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T12:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=5578"},"modified":"2014-04-05T19:47:13","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T11:47:13","slug":"arcade-fire-drake-serena-ryder-tegan-and-sara-among-early-juno-award-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/30\/arcade-fire-drake-serena-ryder-tegan-and-sara-among-early-juno-award-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcade Fire, Drake, Serena Ryder, Tegan and Sara among early Juno Award winners"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arcade<\/a>
Arcade Fire performing at Rock en Seine in 2007. Photo by Bertrand \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WINNIPEG\u2014Arcade Fire, Drake, Serena Ryder and Tegan and Sara were among the early winners Saturday in a Juno Awards race that appears as wide open as a Prairie vista.<\/p>\n

Only violin maestro James Ehnes was a double Juno winner\u2014bringing the Brandon, Man., native\u2019s career tally up to nine\u2014at an annual dinner gala where the bulk of trophies were handed out. But many of the presumed front-runners did claim a category.<\/p>\n

Arcade Fire took alternative album of the year, Drake won rap recording of the year, Tegan and Sara won pop album of the year and Sunday\u2019s co-host Ryder triumphed in a stacked artist of the year category. All four acts still hold multiple nominations during Sunday night\u2019s telecast on CTV.<\/p>\n

Major categories to be determined then included album, group, single and songwriter of the year, but Saturday\u2019s winners weren\u2019t waiting to celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, thank you … this is great\u2014I wanted to hug so many people and I was like, \u2018I gotta run,\u201d\u2018 said visibly flustered Millbrook, Ont., native Ryder, who swore repeatedly as she tried to compose herself. \u201cThis is an amazing, amazing award. My mind is going blank. Look at all the amazing artists I was with.<\/p>\n

\u201cStand up mom and dad,\u201d she said, pointing to her parents as they rose. \u201cThey\u2019ve been so supportive of me for so long and they had the real jobs in the family … and they let me stay at home while I wrote and recorded in my bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Tegan and Sara actually sprinted to the stage together after finally winning their first Juno, following five previous losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God\u2014we haven\u2019t won anything since 1996,\u201d Sara Quin said. \u201cWe want to start with our piano teacher, which was the last time we were awarded something, in 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so nervous,\u201d added sister Tegan. \u201cIt would literally take all the rest of tonight to say thank you to all the people who have supported us. In our case, it didn\u2019t take a village\u2014it took an entire country. Thank you to everyone in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tegan and Sara wasn\u2019t the only veteran act to secure a long-awaited first Juno. Toronto institution Downchild finally won for blues album of the year\u2014their fifth nomination dating back to 1989\u2014while Dean Brody (country album of the year) and Justin Rutledge (roots & traditional album of the year: solo) both won their first Junos out of three career nominations apiece.<\/p>\n

Matt Mays took his first Juno out of five nominations, for rock album of the year. Afterward, he paid tribute to his late guitarist Jay Smith, who died last year while the band was on tour in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a good friend and a brother this year,\u201d said the Cole Harbour, N.S., native. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really tough year for a lot of his friends and family so this goes out to his family, the Smith family. It goes out to my band, who played through a really tough time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been more proud of anybody in my life than this bunch of guys right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other first-time winners included fast-rising Halifax-reared producer Ryan Hemsworth for electronic album of the year, Whitby, Ont., prog-metal outfit Protest the Hero for metal\/hard music album of the year and fresh-faced country crooner Brett Kissel for breakthrough artist of the year, seeming downright shocked as he wrapped his fingers around the heavy trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh, this is incredible,\u201d said the Flat Lake, Alta., native. \u201cI\u2019m very, very privileged. I look around at everybody here and I just feel very blessed to be a breakthrough artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to my parents … who took a little time off of calving season back on the farm to be here at the Junos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much. I\u2019ll never forget this night.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other end of the experience spectrum, much-lauded singer\/songwriter Ron Sexsmith picked up his third Juno for his deeply bittersweet \u201cForever Endeavour\u201d\u2014winning for adult alternative album of the year. If there was an award for most honest speech, he might\u2019ve claimed that one too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really proud of this record. It didn\u2019t do very well, truth be told, but I was really proud of the album,\u201d said the Toronto native. \u201cI really didn\u2019t expect this. I love you all. This is just great to be invited to the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Johnny Reid\u2019s win for adult alternative album of the year gave him a four-Juno lifetime haul, Ryder and Drake have five apiece and the widely decorated Arcade Fire can lay claim to seven career Junos.<\/p>\n

Of course, those numbers are almost certain to change Sunday. Arcade Fire will compete in five more categories after going 1-for-1 on Saturday while Ryder will have a shot at four more awards, Michael Buble\u2014a loser in two categories contested Saturday\u2014and Tegan and Sara have shots at three more and Drake, Hedley and Celine Dion are also still double nominees.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s gala did little to clarify who might emerge from this year\u2019s show with the longest haul. Still, the Junos proved willing to veer slightly from the script on several occasions.<\/p>\n

Tegan and Sara\u2019s \u201cHeartthrob,\u201d for instance, was a widely praised turn toward the sleek and polished for the Calgary-reared twins, but beating out perennial Juno favourite Buble\u2014an 11-time winner who has thrice claimed the Junos\u2019 top overall category, album of the year\u2014had to be considered at least a mild surprise. Similarly, Deadmau5 ceded dance recording of the year (a category he\u2019s won four times) to Dutch producer Armin van Buuren and former SoulDecision singer Trevor Guthrie while Ryder\u2019s win for artist of the year, over the likes of Dion, Drake and Buble, also looked like a coup.<\/p>\n

Walk Off the Earth, Robin Thicke and Tegan and Sara are among the performers expected Sunday, when locally reared rock heroes Bachman-Turner Overdrive will be ushered into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Also Saturday, married pair Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida shared the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award after a video introduction that included a testimonial from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. They also confirmed backstage that they were working on their first collaborative album, while also fielding questions about how they get along so well (\u201cwe fought right before we went onstage,\u201d Maida admitted with a laugh).<\/p>\n

During an eloquent jointly delivered speech, the pair was far more circumspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when we stand here tonight,\u201d said Maida, \u201cit\u2019s really important to note or to make that distinction that we accept this award really on behalf on all of the people that actually wake up every day and try to do worthwhile and virtuous things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG\u2014Arcade Fire, Drake, Serena Ryder and Tegan and Sara were among the early winners Saturday in a Juno Awards race …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","mauthors-nick-patch","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}