{"id":96503,"date":"2017-04-02T21:53:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T01:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=96503"},"modified":"2017-04-02T21:53:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T01:53:03","slug":"all-star-rendition-of-summer-of-69-closes-junos-which-honoured-cohen-downie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/02\/all-star-rendition-of-summer-of-69-closes-junos-which-honoured-cohen-downie\/","title":{"rendered":"All star rendition of ‘Summer of ’69’ closes Junos, which honoured Cohen, Downie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prime<\/a>
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked for it, Bryan Adams delivered. (Photo: Bryan Adams\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked for it, Bryan Adams delivered.<\/p>\n

Sunday night’s Juno Awards opened with a skit that had the prime minister phoning in a request for \u201cSummer of ’69\u201d and the show closed with an all-star performance that also included Sarah McLachlan, Alessia Cara and members of rock bands Billy Talent and the Arkells.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the show mixed comedy from co-host Russell Peters and sombre tributes to two of the year’s big winners, Gord Downie and the late Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n

Cohen won album of the year for \u201cYou Want It Darker,\u201d making it the second posthumous Juno honour for Montreal’s poet laureate. Cohen, who died in November, also won artist of the year during a Juno gala dinner on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Trudeau introduced a tribute performance for Cohen \u2013 who he called \u201cone of the greatest artists Canada has ever produced\u201d \u2013 by recalling when the Montreal poet-songwriter was an honorary pallbearer for his father Pierre Trudeau’s funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember a gathering the night before the funeral…. That was the night I learned Leonard \u2013 a great man \u2013 but not a big hugger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feist, accompanied by two other singers, performed a cover of Cohen’s 1967 song \u201cHey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,\u201d backed by a slideshow of black and white photos of the musician.<\/p>\n

Downie did not attend the show but appeared in a pre-recorded acceptance speech after being named the winner of the songwriter of the year Juno for his \u201cSecret Path\u201d solo project, which recounts the life of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack, who died in 1966 after running away from a residential school. \u201cSecret Path\u201d also won the best adult alternative album and recording package of the year awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for stepping into the wind, for following the sound you’ve been sort of hearing your entire life. For looking to see what has been bothering you a little bit,\u201d Downie said in a pre-recorded acceptance speech for the songwriter award.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor recognizing that we’re not completely Canada yet. For seeing we have friends, our fellow countrymen and women, who are in big trouble. For recognizing our friends who were here before us, at least for thousands of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Nations have many, many stories like this one,\u201d he said in reference to Chanie’s story. \u201cMy dream would be that this record with Jeff Lemire’s drawings might help people. Might give teachers something to help teach our young ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the more surprising moments of the evening came when Tragically Hip member Paul Langois took the stage to accept the band’s win for group of the year. The guitarist launched into a lengthy speech thanking his family and crew before Juno producers started playing him off.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo to commercial, go ahead. This is my arena, not yours,\u201d he said before turning his back to the cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to shout out to Gord Downie and I want \u2013\u201d he continued before his microphone was cut.<\/p>\n

Other winners included Ruth B who took home breakthrough artist of the year after her song \u201cLost Boy\u201d elevated her from a Vine star to a Billboard chart success.<\/p>\n

Cara won pop album for \u201cKnow-It-All,\u201d her breakout which includes hits singles like \u201cHere\u201d and \u201cWild Things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan musician Jess Moskaluke’s \u201cKiss Me Quiet\u201d won the country album award.<\/p>\n

Peters opened the show with a somewhat off-colour monologue in which he proclaimed the audience of young girls was a \u201cfelony waiting to happen,\u201d and gave a shout out to Canada’s sesquicentennial, calling the country \u201cstill sexy at 150.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is 241 and they’re aging horribly \u2013 especially since January,\u201d Peters said, in reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. \u201cIt’s almost like the U.S. has a really bad spray tan all over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters also joked about the Canadian musical superstars who weren’t in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake is on tour,\u201d Peters noted, to groans from the audience. \u201cThe Weeknd is dating (Justin) Bieber’s ex, and the Biebs is in Brazil, probably punching a fan right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters adopted a more serious tone for a moment to recognize that he was subbing in for Michael Buble, who bowed out of hosting duties last month to care for his young son Noah, who’s fighting cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts are with you Mikey and I love you buddy,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked for it, Bryan Adams delivered. Sunday night’s Juno Awards opened with a skit that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":96504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[17381,17380],"class_list":["post-96503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-summer-of-69","tag-the-juno-awards","mauthors-david-friend","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96503","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}