What the Super Bowl could learn from Nelly Furtado — and more highlights from the 2024 Junos

For the first time since 2006, Canada's biggest night in music returned to Halifax! 

Hosted by Canadian singer-songwriter and certified pop princess Nelly Furtado, the 2024 Junos made history, inducting hip-hip legend Maestro Fresh Wes into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Furtado opened the show, performing a medley of hits from her 25-year career, including I'm Like a Bird and Maneater. Charlotte Cardin took home major awards for her album 99 Nights, winning both album of the year and pop album of the year. 

To talk more about their favourite performances and moments of the night, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud is joined by artists and culture critics Cadence Weapon, Tristan Grant and Morgan Mullin. 

To read more about the 2024 Junos, head to CBC Music.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Morgan, how did you feel about last night's Junos right here in Halifax?   

Morgan: It was such an exciting reminder of all the city has to offer. Having the Junos here felt like such a great way to showcase all the different music and culture that's happening just in this part of the country. I feel like a lot of people in other regions of the country know that we have a lot of like roots music and like traditional folk and things like that. And I feel like that was really well represented last night. But we also had people from Halifax who were up for reggae album of the year, like Jah'Mila, whose album Roots Girl was one of my favourites of last year. There's people in the running for electronic. It's a reminder that we got all kinds of stuff going on out here and it's all worth paying attention to. 

Elamin: Tristan, you performed with Jah'Mila on Saturday. Do you want to talk about that performance? Because you were so good and I was on my feet the whole time.

Tristan: I was really excited to do it. It was a no-brainer to be on that stage. A lot of us were really grateful to be there and to do that. And it's a lot of what you're saying, Morgan, where we were so excited to have the Junos in Halifax because everyone from Atlantic Canada could swarm and get together and do that. Jah'Mila and I did this song East Coast Family with O'Sound and Aquakultre, who are also some great people from that region. And to be able to celebrate that on stage and bring that message that it's not just roots music, it's not just Celtic music, as great as that is. There's a lot of people here that we need to represent. So that felt like a moment for me on stage. It felt like an opportunity to send that message forward.

Elamin: Cadence, let's talk about the Junos, man. How do you feel about last night's Junos after watching the show?

Cadence: I believe in the potential of the Junos very greatly. I'm not the No. 1 award show fan on the planet in general. I think Nelly Furtado was amazing. I feel like she brought so much energy, and it's honestly just really great to see her again.

Elamin: Morgan, we want to talk about that opening number because the show opens and you get Nelly Furtado. But the joyous thing about it is that it's like a career retrospective of all the hits that she has supplied to the nation over two decades. Talk to me about watching her do both hosting duties and also do this giant opening number that made me go, "Oh, I'm in for a good time."

Morgan: So for the opening number, when she was giving Jetsons realness in this silver outfit, I was sitting there thinking, "I don't know who plans the Super Bowl, but I hope they're seeing this because that was such a good mix." She covered such breadth and ground so quickly in a way that kept you up and kept you moving and kept you dancing. So I thought that was amazing. I feel like for me, whenever I think about whoever's hosting the Junos in any given year, I have a really high bar because I'm always thinking about Shania Twain in 2003, when she had all the different costume changes. Nelly brought this really fun, amazing energy. And she also had a lot of really great different costume numbers as the night went on, which was cool.

Elamin: Tristan, this year marks 30 years since the Junos started including Indigenous categories in the awards. Out of this year's Indigenous categories, what were some of the highlights for you?

Tristan: I was just excited to just see a lot of representation across the board, not just in the indigenous categories. But I'm a big fan of Aysanabee, so I was very happy and proud to see him take home two Junos: songwriter of the year and alternative album of the year.

Elamin: Morgan, a bunch of Haligonian acts were up for awards this year. Was there anyone that you were specifically rooting for?

Morgan: Morgan Toney is from Nova Scotia, not Halifax proper, but I have been really excited with what he's been doing. I think it's sometimes really easy to write off certain genres, and he's just giving such a great reminder that traditional roots music is alive. It is shifting. It is growing. There's innovation happening just the same way as there is in rock or any other given genre. 

Elamin: Last night, Maestro Fresh Wes became the first rap artist to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Cadence, he never thought that hip-hop could take it this far. What was going through your mind as you were watching that moment?

Cadence: I think it's so good to give him his flowers. Maestro's a legend. It was really great to see. I do think it's weird that they had him walking in with the Mounties. 

Elamin: Morgan, when you were watching that, what did you make of Maestro's speech? 

Morgan: Not to make everything about the clothes, but I did notice that he was in this leather tux situation that I thought was a really great callback to the outfit that he wore in his first video. But just in general, I thought it was really exciting to see him getting the acknowledgement that he deserves. We talk about Canadian pioneers in all kinds of different genres, but you don't always hear those conversations with pioneers of hip-hop. So I'm hoping this is going to be the first step in maybe more people remembering how important all of our musical pioneers are.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender