While the best Junos will always be the year Shania Twain invented athleisure, making a splash each time she took to the stage at the 2003 ceremony in a different ensemble that was a homage to a Canadian hockey team, this year’s show will be a close second. Why? Well, more Nova Scotians are in the running for a statuette in 2021 than recent years have seen, with five artists in total from our fair province vying for categories like Contemporary Roots Album of the Year or Adult Alternative Album of the Year.
While not every award is televised as part of Sunday, June 6th’s live event, keep your fingers and toes crossed for:
- Bahamas, whose album Sad Hunk is up for Adult Alternative Album of the Year.
- Sarah Slean and Symphony Nova Scotia‘s collaboration, which is in the running for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Category—alongside Waverly’s own soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan, who collaborated with Amsterdam’s Ludwig Orchestra as part of the team behind the offering La Passion.
- Rose Cousins‘s Bravado, an album the illustrates the beautiful difference between loneliness and being alone, which is nominated for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year.
- Cape Breton’s Beolach, who got its first-ever Juno nod for the category Traditional Roots Album of the Year off the back of its 2020 album All Hands.
The show kicks off Sunday, June 6 at 9pm and you can tune in via CBC Gem or, you know, by flicking on your TV.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2021.
