During the JUNO Awards Broadcast that aired live nationwide on CBC and CBC Gem and was viewed globally on CBC Music’s YouTube channel,  Joni Mitchell received thunderous applause as she took to the stage at the TD Coliseum to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award. In introducing her, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said: “Joni’s music didn’t just provide the soundtrack to our lives he shifted culture, inspired generations and redefined what songwriting could be.”

Gracing the stage, Mitchell, 82, said that she was “so happy to be in Canada [with] our wonderful prime minister.” Noting that she now lives in the United States, she continued “and you know what’s happening there. This man is a blessing. You guys are so fortunate.”

Following her brief remarks, the widely acclaimed Canadian-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist joined Sarah McLachlan, Allison Russell and other artists in a musical tribute to her body of work, which includes such notable songs as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Help Me,” and “River.”

Mariel Buckley, whose October 2025 release Strange Trip Ahead (Birthday Cake Records) was named Contemporary Folk Album of the Year, is a Calgary, Alberta-based singer-songwriter. She is the younger sister of singer T. Buckley, with whom she has also recorded and performed together as a duo. Strange Trip Ahead was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with her Edmonton-based band and produced by Jarrad K at Chateau Noir Studios. Her third full-length album, it was preceded by the critically acclaimed Everywhere I Used To Be (2022) and Driving In The Dark (2018). Although Buckley’s music may be genre defying, her songwriting reflects an intimate folk style. She tours Europe for several weeks this spring.

Morgan Toney, 27, whose Heal The Divide, was named Traditional Folk Album of the Year, is a Mi’kmaq folk singer-songwriter and fiddler from Nova Scotia. A member of he Wagmatcook First Nation, Toney performs and records music blends Celtic folk (reflective of Cape Breton) and the traditional, old songs of his people – a fusion that he calls Mikmatic) and describes as his way of celebrating his language and heritage. Heal The Divide is Toney’s third album. Preceding it were 2023’s Resilience, which was nominated for a Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2024, and 2021’s First Flight, which was reissued in 2022 on Ishkode Records.

Also nominated for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year were The Hammer & The Rose (Matt Andersen), Purple Gas (Noeline Hofmann), These Dark Canyons (The Young Novelists), and Further From The Country (William Prince). The other Traditional Roots Music Album of the Year nominees included I Lost My Heart on Friday (Aerialists), Gold And Coal (Cassie and Maggie), The Moon’s Daughter (Heather MacIsaac), and Folk Signals (The Southern Residents).

Also of potential interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers, Steven Marriner’s Hear My Heart was named Blues Album of the Year, while Sarah McLachlan’s Better Broken was named Adult Contemporary Album of the Year. Canadian pop star Tate McRae was the big winner, receiving awards in four of the six categories in which she was nominated: album of the year, artist of the year, single of the year, and pop album of the year.

For more information on Canada’s top music awards, including a complete listing of winners and the 248 nominees across 47 categories, visit https://junoawards.ca.

A Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Joni Mitchell (pictured), the widely acclaimed Canadian-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is known for such songs as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Help Me,” and “River.”

In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Strange Trip Ahead (Mariel Buckley), The Hammer & The Rose (Matt Andersen), Purple Gas (Noeline Hofmann) These Dark Canyons (The Young Novelists), and Further From The Country (William Prince). Traditional Roots Music Album of the Year nominees include I Lost My Heart on Friday (Aerialists), Gold And Coal (Cassie and Maggie), The Moon’s Daughter (Heather MacIsaac), Heal The Divide (Morgan Toney), and Folk Signals (The Southern Residents).

Also of potential interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers are the nominees for Blues Album of the Year. These include Sing Pretty Blues (Crystal Shawanda), Ooh Yeah! (Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne), The Medicine (Miss Emily), Answer The Call (Secondhand Dreamcar), and Hear My Heart (Steve Mariner).

In addition to her Contemporary Album of the Year nomination for Purple Gas, Noeline Hofmann is among the 10 nominees for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. . Among the five nominees for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year are Conditions of Love Vol. 1 (Rose Cousins) and Better Broken (Sarah McLachlan, while Children’s Album of the Year nominees include Little Leaf (Chris McKhool).

In total, there are 248 nominees in the running across 47 categories for Canada’s top music awards. Eight-time JUNO Award-winner Justin Bieber and Tate McRae lead the pack with six nominations each.

A soulful Nashville, Tennessee-based, Montreal-born Scottish Grenadian Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and activist, Allison Russell is also a co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago and was part of Po’ Girl. Outside Child is her debut solo album and was also recently chosen as Contemporary Album of the Year in the 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards, while she was named English Songwriter of the Year and New/Emerging Artist of the Year in recognition of it.

Wrought with emotion, Outside Child features 11 original songs “about resilience and survival, transcendence and the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family,” says Russell, who faced abuse and trauma during her youth that music has helped her to overcome. She is also among the nominees for both Album and Artist of the year in the International Folk Music Awards to be presented by Folk Alliance International on May 18 in Kansas City, Missouri on the opening night of its annual conference.

Maria Dunn is a Scotland-born, Edmonton, Alberta-based singer-songwriter who describes herself as a storyteller through song and accompanies herself on both guitar and accordion. She writes melodic, often socially aware, songs about ordinary people, while her music fuses Celtic folk with elements of bluegrass and country.

Joyful Banner Blazing is Dunn’s first release in four years and her seventh in a career spanning more than 20 years. Produced by Sharon Johnson of the Juno Award-winning band The McDades (as were her six previous independent releases), Joyful Banner Blazing celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy, and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. Thrice nominated for Junos, Dunn won an Edmonton Music Prize for her previous album, 2016’s Gathering. Her songs have been recorded Niamh Parsons and The Outside Track, among others, while one of them (“God Bless Us Everyone”) appears in the Rise Again songbook.

A complete list of Juno Awards winners can be found, along with additional information, on line at junoawards.ca.

“We are devastated to cancel this national celebration of music, but at this time of global uncertainty, he health, safety and well-being of all Canadians must stand at the forefront of any decisions that impact our communities,” according to the statement that CARAS posted online at https://junoawards.ca. “We know this is the right decision based on the information we curtly have ad are continuing to receive. The situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve rapidly and we urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”

Unfortunately, cancellation of the televised awards gala and Junos-related events preceding it was made after artists and other participants had already begun arriving in Saskatoon for JUNO Week festivities that were to have begun on March 12.

CARAS noted that it will “explore options to coordinate an alternative way to honor this year’s JUNO Award winners and special award recipients.”

As previously reported on AcousticMusicScene.com in late January, among the coveted awards are those for Contemporary and Traditional Roots Albums of the Year. In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Coyote (Catherine MacLellan), Easy Keeper (Del Barber), Little Bones (Irish Mythen), Passages (Justin Rutledge), and Mohawk (Lee Harvey Osmond). Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees include Once a Day (April Verch), By Appointment or Chance (Miranda Mulholland), Sketches (Natalie MacMaster), Sugar & Joy (The Dead South), and Assinbone & The Red (The Small Glories).

Nominees in other award categories that may be of interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers include those for Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year and Blues Album of the Year. Nominated in the former category are Celeigh Cardinal for Stories from a Downtown Apartment, Digawolf for Yellowstone, nehiyawak for nipiy, Northern Haze for Siqinnaarut, and Riit for ataataga. In the running for Blues Album of the Year are Pocket Full of Nothing (Big Dave McLean), Mad Love (Dawn Tyler Watson), Hand Me Down Blues (Durham County Poets), That’s Where It’s At (Michael Jerome Browne), and The Northern South Vol. 2 (Whitehorse). In addition, Toothsayer by Tanya Tagaq is among the nominees for Instrumental Album of the Year; a throat singer and composer, Tagaq is a Polaris Prize recipient and Canadian Folk Music Award-winner.

Canadian Folk Music Awards Weekend is Also in Doubt Amid Rising Coronavirus Concerns

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, organizers of the Canadian Folk Music Awards are in consultation with their various stakeholders regarding its awards weekend, April 3-4, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. “The health and safety of our patrons, artists and staff is our primary concern,” according to a post by the CFMA board of directors on its website. “We will announce any decisions regarding whether to proceed with caution and protective measures, or to cancel our event altogether as soon as possible.”

As reported on AcousticMusicScene.com last November, Dave Gunning, a singer-songwriter who hails from Nova Scotia, tops the list of nominees for the 2020 Canadian Folk Music Awards with four nominations. Jenn Grant (also a Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter), The Small Glories (the Winnipeg-based duo of Cara Luft and JD Edwards), and Vishten (an Acadian trio from Canada’s East Coast) each received three nods, while more than half-a-dozen other artists/acts received two nominations apiece. They are among the many artists and groups from throughout Canada vying for awards in 19 categories.

Here’s a link to the Nov. 22, 2019 article: https://acousticmusicscene.com/2019/11/22/nominees-named-for-2020-canadian-folk-music-awards/

Cockburn, a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter and pioneering guitarist, received his 13th Juno Award for Bone On Bone. The Ottawa, Ontario native, who won his first Juno in 1971, has released 33 albums during a career spanning five decades.

Themes of social justice permeate many of Cockburn’s songs, while he also has championed environmental and indigenous people’s issues. Last year, he received the inaugural People’s Voice Award during the International Folk Music Awards Show held in conjunction with the 2017 Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. He also was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame last fall and was previously inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame (2002). Cockburn is the subject of a full-length feature documentary, Pacing the Cage, and penned a memoir, Rumours of Glory, that was published in 2014.

The Dead South was honored for its album, Illusion & Doubt. The Regina, Saskatchewan-based folk, bluegrass and alt. country ensemble has released three albums since forming in 2012. The group’s musical inspiration comes from an old-school feel that is combined with a punk influence, according to vocalist-guitarist Nate Hilts.

Medicine Songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her thought-provoking lyrics and her passionate advocacy for aboriginal people, was named Indigenous Music Album of the Year. In addition to a music career spanning more than 50 years, Sainte-Marie has been a social activist, educator and philanthropist and has sought to protect indigenous intellectual property and championed indigenous artists and performers. In recognition of those efforts, she received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award during last year’s JUNO Awards ceremonies. Medicine Songs also was among this year’s nominees for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year.

A complete list of JUNO Awards winners can be found, along with additional information, on line at www.junoawards.ca.

In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Inuusiq (The Jerry Cans), The Weather Station (The Weather Station), Watershed (Amelia Curran), Bone On Bone (Bruce Cockburn), and Medicine Songs (Buffy Sainte-Marie).

Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees include Jayme Stone’s Folklife (Jayme Stone), What We Leave Behind (The East Pointers), Illusion & Doubt (The Dead South), The Willow Collection (Cassie and Maggie), and Rove (Coig).

The Dead South (a Regina, Saskatchewan-based folk-bluegrass ensemble) and The Jerry Cans (a band from Iqualui, Nunavut, who fuse folk and country music with traditional Inuit throat singing) also are among the five nominees for Breakthrough Group of the Year. Amelia Curran, an award-winning singer-songwriter from St. John’s, Newfoundland, also is among the nominees for Songwriter of the Year — as is Rose Cousins, an award-winning singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia; both are previous JUNO Award recipients.

Medicine Songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her thought-provoking lyrics and her passionate advocacy for Aboriginal people, also is among the nominees for Indigenous Music Album of the Year. In addition to a music career spanning more than 50 years, Sainte-Marie has been a social activist, educator and philanthropist and has sought to protect indigenous intellectual property and championed indigenous artists and performers. In recognition of those efforts, she received the Alan Waters Humanitarian Award during last year’s JUNO Awards ceremonies.

A complete list of JUNO Awards nominees can be found, along with additional information, online at www.junoawards.ca.

In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are The Family Album (Matthew Barber & Jill Barber), Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen? (Lisa LeBlanc), Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams (Corin Raymond), Strange Country (Kacy & Clayton), and Earthly Days (William Prince).

Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees include Gathering (Maria Dunn), Someday the Heart (The High Bar Gang), The Original (Jenny Whiteley), Aupres du Poele (Ten Strings and a Goat Skin), and Secret Victory (The East Pointers).

Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose musical career spans more than 50 years, is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose songs have also been covered by hundreds of other artists. She is known for her thought-provoking lyrics and her passionate advocacy for Aboriginal people. Also a social activist, educator and philanthropist, Sainte-Marie has sought to protect indigenous intellectual property and championed indigenous artists and performers. It is in recognition of the latter that she will receive the Alan Water Humanitarian Award.

Sarah McLachlan, a ten-time JUNO and three-time Grammy Award-winning artist, is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists. She created Lilith Fair 20 years ago – a festival dedicated to showcasing and supporting female artists. McLachlan was the recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015 and of the Alan Waters Humanitarian Award in 2006.

A complete list of JUNO Awards nominees can be found, along with additional information, on line at www.junoawards.ca.

The 43rd annual JUNO Awards were presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS) on Sunday, March 30, at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ryder, who co-hosted and performed during the show, had received nominations in five categories. Only indie rockers Arcade Fire, with six nods, received more nominations. Like Ryder, the Montreal-based group received two awards – Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year for Reflecktor.

Justin Rutledge’s Valleyheart beat out So Say We All by David Francey, Tin Star by Lindi Ortega, Come Cry with Me by Daniel Romano, and Don’t Get Too Grand by Donovan Woods in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year – Solo category. Other groups that were in the running for the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year award won by the Ontario-based alt-country/indie-rock sextet The Strumbellas included The Devin Cuddy Band for Volume One, Little Miss Higgins & The Winnipeg Five for Bison Ranch Recording Sessions, Lee Harvey Osmond for The Folk Sinner, and The Wilderness of Manitoba for Island of Echoes.

Singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s Forever Endeavour was named Adult Alternative Album of the Year.

Ryder received nods in five categories: Fan’s Choice, Artist of the Year, Single of the Year (“What I Wouldn’t Do”), Album of the Year (Harmony), and Songwriter of the Year. Only indie rockers Arcade Fire, with six nods, received more nominations.

Nominees for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo include So Say We All by David Francey, Tin Star by Lindi Ortega, Come Cry With Me by Daniel Romano, Valleyheart by Justin Rutledge, and Don’t Get Too Grand by Donovan Woods.

Groups in the running for a Roots & Traditional Album of the Year award include The Devin Cuddy Band for Volume One, Little Miss Higgins & The Winnipeg Five for Bison Ranch Recording Sessions, Lee Harvey Osmond for The Folk Sinner, The Strumbellas for We Still Move On Dance Floors, and The Wilderness of Manitoba for Island of Echoes.

Among the five nominees for Adult Alternative Album of the Year are singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith for Forever Endeavour and alt-country rockers The Sadies for Internal Sounds. Sexsmith also is in the running for Songwriter of the Year.

The 43rd annual JUNO Awards will be presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS) on Sunday, March 30, at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A prolific singer-songwriter, Cockburn received his 14th Juno for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year – Solo for Small Source of Comfort, his 31st studio release. Other nominees for the award included Craig Cardiff, David Francey, Dave Gunning and Lindi Ortega. Last December, Cockburn received awards for Contemporary Album and Solo Artist of the Year during the 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Toronto-based indie-pop chanteuse Feist snagged the Artist of the Year award, while Vancouver-based folk-popster Dan Mangan was named New Artist of the Year and captured the Alternative Album of the Year award for Oh Fortune.