‘Me Too’ at the JUNO Awards

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It may not have taken centre stage, but the “Me Too” movement had a voice at Sunday night’s JUNO Awards at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Mention of the women’s rights push wasn’t in host Michael Buble’s opening monologue, but instead got its first mention from Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly as she awarded Breakthrough Artist to Jessie Reyez.

“The Government of Canada … will work to achieve gender parity. We will make it happen,” Joly said.

JUNO winner, singer and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie didn’t mince words when she said more needs to be done to promote safety for women in the music industry.

“We need to build a foundation upon which we can support an environment that actually encourages success for women as engineers, producers, as artists and writers,” she said. “Because it’s not here yet. We need to be at the forefront and to advocate, and be the catalyst for change and now’s the time to do it.”

For many, the awards were a chance to keep the spotlight on the women’s rights movement.

With hashtags such as #JunosSoMale on Twitter along with sexual misconduct allegations against Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard, there were high expectations that the women’s rights movement would feature prominently at the awards.

The band pulled out from their performance at the awards.

“The JUNOs are dedicated to cleaning up this industry where it needs to be changed, in terms of #MeToo,” Sainte-Marie said following the awards.

Female artists or women members of bands who took home awards include:

Breakthrough Artist – Jessie Reyez
Breakthrough Group – The Beaches
Alternative Album of the Year – Antisocialites, Alvvays
Pop Album – Skin & Earth, Lights
Vocal Jazz Album – Turn Up The Quiet, Diana Krall
Classical Album: Solo or Chamber – Janina Fialkowska
Classical Album: Vocal or Choral – Crazy Girl Crazy, Barbare Hannigan with Ludwig Orchestra
Classical Composition – My Name is Amanda Todd, Jocelyn Morlock
Indigenous Music Album – Medicine Songs, Buffy Sainte-Marie
Traditional Roots – Illusion & Doubt The Dead South
Jack Richardson Producer – “L-O-V-E”, “Night and Day” (co-producer Tommy Lipuma) Turn Up The Quiet – Diana Krall
Video – Venus Fly ft. Janelle Monae. Grimes (Claire Boucher), Grimes
Electronic Album – Mass Manipulation, Rezz
Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award – Denise Donion

Click here for more details of who took home JUNO Awards Sunday night

Here’s a rundown of how things went: