The nominees for The 52nd Annual JUNO Awards were announced today by The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) at a press conference attended by media and industry notables inside the CBC’s Canadian Broadcasting Centre, in downtown Toronto. This year’s winners will be unveiled in Edmonton, Alberta at The JUNO Opening Night Awards Presented by Music Canada on Saturday, March 11 and The JUNO Awards Broadcast on Monday, March 13, broadcasting live on CBC and produced by Insight Productions (a Boat Rocker company).
CARAS also revealed today that three more of this year’s nominees will join the lineup of performers taking the stage at The JUNO Awards Broadcast – award-winning rock band Alexisonfire (Rock Album of the Year), multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer songwriter Aysanabee (Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year) and multi-platinum R&B powerhouse Jessie Reyez (Contemporary R&B Recording of the Year and Music Video of the Year).
Canada’s biggest night in music, hosted for the second year by global superstar Simu Liu, will broadcast and stream live across the country from Rogers Place in Edmonton at 8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. MT on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, CBC Listen, and globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos and CBC Music’s Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages.
Canada’s Starboy The Weeknd sweeps this year’s nominations with a total of six including: TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Pop Album of The Year. Pop punk legend Avril Lavigne and Albertan singer-songwriter Tate McRae followed with five nominations each, showcasing the enormous talent that reinforces Canada’s global reach. Avril is nominated for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and Pop Album of The Year; while Tate is up for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Pop Album of The Year.
First-time nominees honoured with three nominations include acclaimed singer/songwriter Preston Pablo for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year and Breakthrough Artist Of The Year; and dance-pop icon Rêve for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Breakthrough Artist Of The Year and Dance Recording Of The Year. Canadian rapper NAV also takes home three nominations for Album of the Year, Rap Album/EP of The Year and Rap Single of the Year; alongside internationally celebrated singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Single of the Year and Artist of the Year; and country music duo The Reklaws for TikTok JUNO Fan Choice, Group of the Year and Country Album of the Year.
The host province of Alberta is also well represented with first time nominations going to Altameda for Adult Alternative Album of the Year; Anthony Tan for Classical Composition of the Year; The Bearhead Sisters and Cikwes for Traditional Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year; Devon Cole for Breakthrough Artist of the Year; The Ostara Project for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, Tehillah Worship for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year; Rare Americans for Breakthrough Group of the Year and WAKE for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year.
MusiCounts, Canada’s music education charity associated with CARAS and The JUNO Awards, will recognize one Canadian music educator’s impact not only on students, but also their community and the music education field, through the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award, presented by CST Foundation. The 2023 nominees are Jewel Casselman (Winnipeg, MB, Lakewood School), Susan Evoy (St. John’s, NL, St. Teresa’s Elementary & Waterford Valley High School), Stephen Richardson (Yellowknife, NWT, École St. Joseph School), Kelly Stronach (Guelph, ON, Mitchell Woods Public School) and Heidi Wood (Calgary, AB, Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School).
Lighting up the stage is Alexisonfire, who will stun crowds with their amped up show for the second time since their inaugural JUNO performance in 2007. The band recently released their long-anticipated and first full-length album in over 13 years, Otherness, described as their most cohesive and self-actualized record to date. Otherness debuted at #2 on the Top 20 Music Canada album chart and the band’s single “Sans Soleil” hit #2 on Rock Radio in Canada. The post-hardcore luminaries have sold over one million records and released five hugely successful studio albums, with four achieving Platinum-certification.
Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class alumni, Aysanabee, will make his JUNO Awards debut with a performance showcasing his striking sound and powerful voice. Since releasing his deeply moving debut album Watin in 2022, Aysanabee has been named a CBC Music Breakthrough Artist of the Year. His acclaimed single “Nomads” hit #1 on CBC Music’s Top 20 and continues to climb, entering the Top 10 on Mediabase Canada’s Alternative radio chart. His soulful track “We Were Here,” charted on the Indigenous Music Countdown and was featured on the hit ABC series Station 19.
The four-time JUNO Award winning superstar, Jessie Reyez will help celebrate this year’s nominees as she returns to share a soulful live performance with audiences in Edmonton. This past September, Reyez released her sophomore album, YESSIE, which chronicles the journey and range of emotions from love and loss to healing, closure and happiness. The GRAMMY Award-nominated artist’s recent success includes her debut album reaching Top 5 on Billboard’s R&B Album Chart and amassing over 1.2 billion global streams. Reyez also earned the title of Top Female Debut Album and Top R&B Album of 2020 for Before Love Came To Kill Us, and made a cameo in Beyonce’s Black is King visual album.
These artists join previously announced acts AP Dhillon, Banx & Ranx, Preston Pablo and Rêve together in a collaborative performance, Nickelback, Tate McRae and Tenille Townes.
The 52nd Annual JUNO Awards and JUNO Week 2023 will take place in Edmonton, AB from Thursday, March 9 through Monday, March 13, 2023, culminating with The JUNO Awards Broadcast. Media accreditation for the 2023 JUNO Awards is now open at junoawards.ca/media-accreditation. Media have until February 7, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET to apply.
