Rezz, Loud Luxury and Felix Cartal were all big winners at this year's JUNO Awards

By Ryan Hayes

This year's 49th Juno's celebration took place under an unprecedented set of circumstances. On June 29th the Juno's were held as a virtual broadcast through CBC Gem. It was a big night for Canada's talented electronic music scene. Nominees included; Frank Walker, Sultan + Shepard, Bob Moses, Keys N Krates, Electric Youth, Jacques Greene, & Ralph. Taking home honours in three categories, this year's winners continue to represent Canada on the international EDM stage by innovating and elevating their craft.

Dance Recording Of The Year:

Source: Twitter

Felix Cartal & Lights took home the top honour for their collaborative effort Love Me. Recently Lights has delved fully in to the realm of EDM. Along with her Cartal collaboration she toured with Deadmau5 throughout 2019, released a four track EP entitled 'AM 444' with i_o, and recently finished an instrumental synthwave record entitled 'How To Sleep When You're On Fire' with all proceeds being donated to Black Lives Matter Vancouver. This is Lights sixth Juno; past awards include New Arist, & Pop Album Of The Year. After thirteen years in the industry this was Felix Cartal's first Juno award. His first nomination was in 2013, and his last album, 'Next Season', was nominated for Electronic Album Of The Year. Cartal celebrated with Lights in Vancouver before heading out for a celebratory mint Oreo blizzard from Dairy Queen.

Electronic Album Of The Year:

Source: REZZ FB

This year's top honour went to Rezz and her latest album 'Beyond The Senses.' She also won for her debut album 'Mass Manipulation.' Ever since catapulting in to the scene with her distinct sound Rezz has been a fixture in the EDM scene. She shares the honours of album of the year with past winner including; Grimes,Ryan Hemsworth, and Kaytranada.

Group Of The Year:

Source: Twitter

Twenty Eight legendary groups have garnered the title of Group Of The Year—and this year Loud Luxury held down the crown. Now in the company of Arcade Fire, Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good Band, The Tragically Hip, & Rush—among others—Loud Luxury represent a big breakthrough in a category that traditionally does not represent electronic music artists. Last year the duo won Dance Recording Of The Year for their breakthrough single Body. With a digital only event Loud Luxury's members, Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace, jokingly celebrated with a homemade Juno to commemorate the occasion.

CARAS announces the 2019 Nominees for the JUNO Awards

By Sinejan Ozaydemir 

The nominees for the 2019 JUNO Awards were announced today in Toronto. 

We at EDM Canada have been eagerly waiting for the nominations, particularly in the Dance Recording of the Year and the Electronic Album of the Year categories. 

And here they are: 

Dance Recording of the Year

• Gotasoul AZARI - Get Physical - *Independent/Zebralution

• Jackie Chan (ft. Preme & Post Malone) - Dzeko & Tiësto - Universal

• Avatar Beach - Jacques Greene - Arts & Crafts*Universal

• CURA - Keys N Krates - Keys N Krates*Dim Mak

• Body - Loud Luxury - Armada Music B.V*Sony

Electronic Album of the Year

• Crystal Eyes - Ekali - OWSLA/Atlantic*Warner

• Next Season- Felix Cartal - Physical Presents*Fontana North/Universal

• Give It a Rest - iamhill - Independent

• Deception Bay - Milk & Bone - Bonsound*Sony

• Certain Kind of Magic - REZZ - mau5trap*Kobalt

REZZ, who won the JUNO for Electronic Album of the Year at the 2018 JUNO Awards, is nominated again this year in the same category for her album 'Certain Kind of Magic'. Felix Cartal, who was nominated for the Dance Recording of the Year last year for his song 'Get What You Give' is now nominated for his album 'Next Season' in the Electronic Album of the Year category. First time nominees Loud Luxury are the EDM artists nominated for the greatest number of JUNOs this year with 4 nominations in the JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year, Breakthrough Group of the Year and Dance Recording of the Year categories. 

This year’s JUNO Awards and JUNO week will be hosted in London Ontario. The awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, March 17th on CBC worldwide at cbcmusic.ca/junos. 

For the full list of nominees in all categories visit : https://junoawards.ca/2019-juno-award-nominees/

Congratulations to all the nominees! We are excited to see who will win at the 48th Annual JUNO Awards!  

Sunset Festival takes on dance music

By Ryan Hayes

Last Saturday was a first— a Lululemon festival headlined by Diplo, acting as the official after party for a half marathon. Initially filled with apprehension, past iterations of the Sunset Festival have hosted more eclectic indie rocker bands like Young, but the night continually surprised. As the event unfolded it exceeded my expectations at every turn. From a purely organizational standpoint there were no lines, no one waited for food or drinks for longer than a few minutes, everyone had space, the vendors/market were varied, and most importantly everyone in the crowd was respectful. There was definitely a clear divide between attendees who had purchased their tickets to see Diplo/Felix Cartal and those who were there as an extension of the half marathon; but everyone enjoyed themselves.

Felix Cartal took the stage first and weaved together an hour long set packed with originals like Mood, Faces, and a stellar intro edit of Fakin It. What impressed me the most about Cartal's set was it's cohesion; even when he was playing other artist's tracks. Every twist and turn fit neatly within the new soundscape that Cartal has carved out for himself over the last few years. It was a tight, well selected set, welcoming the diverse crowd at Seawheeze and easing them in to a world they may not be accustomed to. As the hour progressed Cartal picked up tempo preparing the audience for Diplo. Britney Spear's Toxic (played in full), and Cartal's final track, his rendition 1998's hit Get What You Give, unified the crowd of over 10,000 runners and dance music fans.

As a musical curator and track selector, Diplo is unrivaled in his field. Weaving together Diplo originals from all four of his side projects (Jack Ü, Major Lazer, LDS & Silk City), his set defied genre's. After announcing that this was his last festival of the 'summer season' (it was the first day of Fall) Diplo laid down one of the most fun, and free, festival sets I had seen in ages. The secret was that it didn't take itself too seriously. From decade spanning hits for the Seawheeze mainstream—Vengaboys' We like to Party & the Macarena, through to Kelis' Milkshake & Drake's In My Feelings—to future bass, house, & festival mainstay mashups—Ping Pong vs Tremor vs Freak & Beyonce Run The World (Girls) vs Duke Dumont's remix of Swish Swish—Diplo blazed relentlessly through his hour long set surprising marathon runner's and exceeding the expectations of dance music fans.

After declaring he had one last track for us, Diplo proceeded to play for an extended twenty minutes past his scheduled set time. While many Seawheeze attendees proceeded to file out, hoping to be the first in line at the shuttles, Diplo delved in to Shiba San's Okay; seemingly signifying it was time for the pure house portion of the night. Whether it was Anti Up's Pizza, Fisher's Stop It, or Camelphat & Elderbrook Cola...Diplo didn't seem to have a road map anymore, he was simply feeling house music. It was an after party hidden within a festival. Traversing through extended mixes of tacks void of traditional festival drops/hooks groups of die hard dance music fans began to pop up and cluster together throughout the crowd—smiling because they knew what was going on and were excited, even if the majority of the audience didn't. It was a risk, but that's what Diplo does best, he exposes people to new genre's of music and pushes them to the forefront.

When all was said and down Seawheeze Sunset Festival was a massive success. Everyone, regardless of their musical leanings, enjoyed themselves, and both artists walked away from the night with legions of new fans. Here's to hoping Seawheeze 2019 also has a dance music lineup.

Canadian Musicians celebrate diversity and equality at the 2018 JUNO awards: pledging to be united for the future of music

By Sinejan Ozaydemir 

This past weekend, Vancouver city played host to the 2018 JUNO awards. EDM Canada was pleased to be part of the JUNOS weekend, bring you live coverage via twitter and instagram. The list of Canadian artists that were nominated, set to take stage and present at the two night event filled us with anticipation for months and not surprisingly - it delivered! 

Just how awesome was the show? It was the first time that the event was broadcasted live in all of Canada as well as worldwide, on CBC and cbc.ca, breaking records as the most-watched primetime program in Canada. The Gala dinner, as well as the awards show, were full of great music, great humour and collective proclamations of unity. 

We had the opportunity to witness beautiful performances by Arcade Fire, Arkells, Daniel Caesar, Diana Krall, Felix Cartal, Jessie Reyez, Lights, Shawn Hook, The Jerry Cans, Barenaked Ladies ft. Steven Page, the Rascalz, City and Colour and Sarah Harmer, James Barker Band, Clairmont The Second, Terra Lightfoot, Iskwe and Caveboy. 

The artists, stages and performances, however, were not the only things that impressed us at this year’s awards week. A big topic that many artists and industry leaders wanted to talk about was equality for all in the music industry. With the rise in the #metoo movement all around the world, Canadian artists took centre stage to stress the importance of creating a safe space for all, regardless of gender or race. Stories were shared on and backstage discussing how this needs to be a collaborative effort and just how important it is to achieve this goal in the long run. Canadians are known for embracing our multiculturalism and fight for equality. The feeling that this ongoing fight is heading in a very positive direction was certainly clear this weekend. It was amazing to hear and see artists and industry leaders come together, celebrating each other's accomplishments and vowing to each other to take a stand and make sure that the future is different. 

A few empowering and encouraging examples of this movement in action were: 

When Denise Donlon said while accepting her Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the JUNOS awards gala: “We are world leaders in artistic talent. Let’s be leaders in gender equality, respect and inclusivity too. … and by the way, the idea that there are no “qualified” women candidates, is just wrong. There are hundreds.” She then followed by asking the men in the room to stand up and pledge to champion women, support women and mentor women. She ended by saying ”Let us all wholeheartedly embrace diversity, respect and inclusion in our hearts and in our deeds and not only will Canadians continue to win, but we will thrive.”

When Buffy Sainte-Marie said while introducing Lights on the Awards stage on Sunday: “It’s time for change. It’s time for women to be recognized for our accomplishments and our value to this industry. It's time for a far greater awareness for what women have done, and what we are capable of doing. We need to build a foundation upon which we can support an environment that actually encourages success for women as engineers, as producers, as artists and writers, as inventors and providers of new music because it’s not here yet. 

We need to be at the forefront and advocate and be the catalyst for change and now’s the time to do it! 

From the bottom to the top of the industry we need to create a safer world for the next generation of women.”

A part of this discussion specifically with regards to gender equality in the industry was with regards to the few number of Canadian women who take on the role of producers and recording engineers. Alan Reid, president and CEO of CARAS shared with us that this year the percentage of women submitted into the engineering and producer categories were only 4% and 8% respectively.  He believes that there should be more support for women in these categories and stated that there is a lot of room for improvement here. Diana Krall, who was the only woman nominated for the Jack Richardson Producer of the year award took home the award saying that she is very happy to represent women in this category and is wanting to produce for and collaborate with other women and artists in the future. 

A similar discussion was had at the JUNO nominee producer and engineer panel in support of Musicounts attended by Electronic music producer Felix Cartal. The panel discussed the importance of having women involved in all aspects of the industry but especially talked about the presence of women involved in the writing and recording process. The panelists all exchanged nods as they discussed the wonderful dynamics of having diverse groups of people together in the recording process. Whether it be different genders or musical styles, they all agreed that diversity helps create better art and should be encouraged. 

We would say that the JUNOS were not only a fantastic and successful celebration of Canadian music, but also a great display of how we are moving forward as music lovers in this country. 

If you missed it, you can watch the broadcast here: https://youtu.be/NYVVaH_IU-4

and the Gala awards dinner here: 

https://youtu.be/dS_StZMntTo 

Canada gets ready to celebrate their musical talent this Sunday at the JUNO Awards in Vancouver

It is the time of year when Canadians celebrate our musical talent! EDM Canada is excited to announce that we will be bringing you JUNOs 2018 coverage this week March 19 - March 25 from Vancouver BC.

Below are the excellent lists of nominees in the electronic music categories this year.

This year’s Electronic Album of the Year nominees are:

• Tenderness – Blue Hawaii
• Someone else – Cri
• Two Hearts – Dabin
• Music To Draw To: Satellite – Kid Koala ft. Emilíana Torrini
• Mass Manipulation – Rezz

This year’s Dance Recording of the Year nominees are:

• Not Going Home ft. Gia Koka & CMC$ – DVBBS
• Get What You Give – Felix Cartal
• Deeper – KAPRI
• Closer ft. Laurell – Nick Fiorucci
• Almost Home ft. Nadia Ali & Iro – Sultan + Shepard

This year, there is also an EDM artist and producer, Felix Cartal, nominated for the Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award, for his songs “Get What You Give” and “Drifting Away”. 

Felix Cartal will also be taking on the role of HOUSE DJ at the 2018 JUNO awards on Sunday March 25 2018, live on CBC 5PM PT / 8PM ET.

The full list of nominees for all categories can be found here. 

Listen to the 2018 JUNO nominees on Apple Music by click here and here. 

Join us on EDM CANADA’s Twitter and Instagram next weekend as we cover the awards live.

We are wishing all of talented nominees best of luck! All of your Canadian Electronic Music fans are looking forward to celebrating with you next weekend at the 2018 JUNO awards.

For anyone who would like to attend the show tickets are available via ticketmaster here.