'Don't put me on a pedestal': Sarah McLachlan on learning to accept her accolades
The singer-songwriter says her Hall of Fame induction was the first award she felt she deserved
When Sarah McLachlan was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2017, it was met with a brief moment of hesitation.
"One the one hand it's like, 'Well I'm not done yet, why are you giving me this?'" she says, while recently rewatching her induction from her home. Although, that sentiment quickly flips: "On the other hand it's like, 'OK, I've done all these things and I'm not done yet. And I'm excited to see what the future holds.'"
The famed singer-songwriter has accumulated enough awards in her career, including three Grammys and eight Junos, that one would think she'd be used to it, but McLachlan admits to feeling as if she was somehow undeserving. That is, until the Hall of Fame asked her if she would accept her induction.
"That was the first time in my life where I was given an honour like that where I felt I deserved it," she says. "I've received a ton of awards, a lot of them I was so young.… and it took till this point, the Hall of Fame night, where it's like, 'No, you know what? I deserve this. I'm going to own this moment, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it.' And I did, and it felt so good."
That said, she also cautions against what such honours can do to people's egos.
"It's a bit of a pedestal, which is a bit dangerous," she says. "It can be nice but its like, 'I am normal, I'm a screwed-up human being just like everybody else, muddling through, trying to get it as right as I can and hoping for the best.' So thank you, but don't put me on a pedestal."
You can watch McLachlan's full My Junos Moment above.
Wherever you are in the world, you can tune in to the 2021 Juno Awards on Sunday, June 6. You can watch live on CBC TV and CBC Gem, listen on CBC Radio One and CBC Music and stream globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos.
