William Shatner and company opened up the Juno Awards broadcast April 1 with a rendition of Trooper’s “Raise a Little Hell.” And he wasn’t the only one raising a little hell at Scotiabank Place for the 41st Canadian music awards.
The night was filled with surprises — for those who won and those who didn’t.
With the majority of the awards handed out the previous evening at the Juno gala, the actual broadcast recognized the more popular awards, including new artist and album of the year.
In keeping with the hellish theme, Nickelback opened the show with what the 81-year-old Shatner described as weak pyrotechnics.
“If the drummer survives, what’s the point?” he asked.
The pyrotechnics weren’t the only thing about Nickelback that seemed to be lackluster. The Canadian musical heavyweights lost to younger and newer Canadian talent in all four categories they were nominated for.
The rest of the show seemed to be a nod to the fresh faces on the Canadian music scene.
New group of the year nominees Hey Rosetta! provided a bit of contrast to Nickelback’s fiery performance with a more laid back one. Alyssa Reid, JRDN, Mia Martina, Anjulie, and Dragonette also brought a “mixtape” of radio singles to life on stage.
While the concept was interesting, allowing a larger number of performers to be showcased, the medley felt disjointed and rushed at times.
It may have been because Dragonette frontwoman Martina Sorbara said she had downed 14 Red Bulls earlier.
Sorbara won dance recording of the year for Dragonette and Martin Solveig’s collaboration, “Hello.” She described the feeling of winning as “buzzy,” although that might still have been the Red Bulls talking.
Both Solveig and Dragonette said they didn’t expect to win against Deadmau5’s infectious electronic hook on “Aural Psynapse.”
For those surprised, Shatner offered his version of the selection process for award winners — a game of pin-the-tail on the award winner played by Rita MacNeil drunk on Jäger bombs.
While this isn’t the actual selection process, a number of the winners were shocked to discover they had beaten out some of the more mainstream artists. In a few cases, Shatner’s version of the selection process might have proved true to some dissenters.
Deadmau5 didn’t seem too bothered by his loss to Dragonette. However, he seemed to be blown away that Michael Bublé’s Christmas took home album of the year. He even asked if he was being strung along when asked to comment on it.
While the spotlight seemed to be on the upsets, veteran musicians know it’s not unusual for their career to take unexpected turns.
Jim Cuddy, frontman of Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Blue Rodeo, said the band started out playing venues like Ottawa’s Rainbow Bistro years ago.
Since then, he said “[Blue Rodeo’s] career became one surprise after another.”
