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Years in the Making - Arkells

#hockey #arkells #music #years in the making #Alex Tuch #buffalo sabres #sabres #collage artwork #collage art #collage #digital art #digital collage #my edit #my edits #song lyrics

This year's Junos are being way more explicit about the situation of the world. It is always called 'the biggest night in Canadian music', given that it is hosted and presented by all these public bodies: the CBC, various other Canadian art councils and funding bodies, the corporate sponsorships are pretty key to putting on an event of this scale. Having it in a stadium (like the 50k kind), broadcasting it nation-wide (and possibly internationally? Idk if the Youtube or Gem streams are geo-locked), that takes money of the sort you often have to rely on the private sector for.

But Canadian artists haven't been holding back. Nemhasis has won multiple awards and has talked about waiting her whole life to see hijabi women on screen in normal settings. This as we pushback on the racist Quebec bill C-21 banning 'religious symbols' in public services (meaning of course, hijabs, turbans, etc. are banned, crosses of course are okay). She is also a Palestinian Canadian. Her literal existence seems to be offensive to some. She just made the best Canadian album of 2024.

Michael Bublé's opening speech had the line 'Canada is not for sale'. Bublé, adult contemporary staple of the moms' and Christmas record collections, is not usually known as a political man. This comes as Canada puts together a united front against Trump's affronts to our sovereignty.

Leandra Earl of The Beaches stood before the nation and said, "Ladies, Canada, I am single." This, as homophobia becomes more naked across the continent (particularly south of the border, but it's worrisome because a lot of Canada's right wing is informed by America's, about 4 years down the line).

Bbno$ (Baby No Money) is an artist who came up largely through the internet. He won the Juno TikTok fan choice award, the fan vote, in the face of much more famous pop artists like the Weeknd, Tate McRae and Shawn Mendes. His last statement of the night was 'Elon Musk is a piece of garbage' (you might think it's a softer version, but you can't swear on live TV). Max Kerman—Max Kerman of Arkells, Canada's Coldplay—echoed this statement seconds later. Arkells are the biggest, most decorated band in Canada. A wide-reaching band.

Even various dual-citizen country artists that made their big breaks by moving base to Nashville, were quick to establish how important home was to them in their speeches. It's pretty out in the open.

While I doubt a significant number of Americans were actually watching the Junos or know what they even are, these shows of support and defiance were more about sending a message to Canadians I think, about who are we: defining ourselves in opposition to the values the current American administration is pretending are 'American'. It was more about saying that we have free speech, we have tolerance (more than the US anyway, which I'd say is still true), it's about saying on national television to 40 million people that we have people that will stand up for Canadians of all strokes and that we defy any attempts to paint the culture of this country with the same colours as America's.

Which is good. Every exercise in free speech is a test of the strength of democracy. I hope like hell we hang on despite the long shadow cast by American neighbours.

Favourite Canadian Music act Go!

Marianas Trench

Treble Charger

Walk off the Earth

Billy Talent

Blue Rodeo

Our Lady Peace

Avril Lavigne

Great Big Sea

Arkells

Sam Roberts Band

Rush

Other (put it in the tags!)

Voting ended onDec 8, 2024

I only have 12 options or I would have included so many more (Sum 41, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, or Steppenwolf anyone?) ..but go wild in the tags!!