5 things you may have missed at the 2019 Junos Songwriters' Circle

The Junos Songwriters' Circle is an often coveted ticket during Junos week, with long-established artists joining up-and-comers to share the stories behind their songs and perform stripped-down versions of those songs live. 

Co-hosted by q's Tom Power and Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle, this year's Songwriters' Circle was a two-hour event divided into two parts, and broadcast live across the country on CBC Music. The first half of the show featured David Foster playing verses on the piano from some of his biggest hits ("I Have Nothing" from The Bodyguard; Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's "The Prayer"), as well as performances from Elisapie (with guitarist Joss Tellier) and Tyler Shaw, while the second half included Saturday Night Jazz host (and recent Juno winner) Laila Biali, Dan Mangan and Meghan Patrick. 

Whether you listened to it live and want to experience it all again, or missed it the first time around, we've got you covered: hit play, above, for an edited version of the event.

CBC Music was in the audience during the show, and below we bring you five teaser moments to keep you hooked all the way through that first — or third — listen.

1. Elisapie singing Whitney Houston's 'I Have Nothing' with David Foster

Foster co-wrote "I Have Nothing" with Linda Thompson for the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, and he played a portion of it during his second set at the Songwriters' Circle. But as he returned to his stool for Elisapie to start her second song, Foster turned to her and said, "Can you sing the chorus to that song?"

Elisapie graciously took the mic — without any lyrics in front of her — and belted out the chorus to the Whitney Houston classic.

Elisapie's own performances were even more stirring: she opened with a cover of Willie Thrasher's "Wolves Don't Live by the Rules," and asked everyone to stand for her performance of "Arnaq" ("Woman" in Inuktitut), an ode to women and femininity sung in Inuktitut, English and French.

2. Alan Doyle and Tom Power co-hosting

Tom Power: "Two Newfoundlanders onstage Alan, we're taking over."

Alan Doyle: "We've got you surrounded, Canada."

3. David Foster's unresolved anger at losing an Oscar to a Top Gun song

Foster has lost three Oscar nominations for songs he's written — "I love the fact that you could actually do 10 minutes of a live radio show with the songs that you lost at the Oscars," Doyle commented, laughing — but Foster really wanted to talk about one of them: "Glory of Love" from The Karate Kid Part II.

"In the interest of time, I want to talk about the song that pissed me off the most," he began, and proceeded to point out that the song that won, Top Gun's "Take my Breath Away," has barely anything to it.

"They didn't even finish the [whispers 'f--king'] lyrics and they won the Oscar."

4. Alan Doyle's a cappella performance of 'Dream of Home'

Doyle had the crowd hanging off his every joke most of the afternoon, but his a cappella performance of "Dream of Home" quieted the crowd — and left few dry eyes.

5. Dan Mangan's story about randomly meeting Paul McCartney

Mangan was in L.A. recording last year, and after doing the first take of what would become "Lay Low," an unexpected visitor appeared.

"We do one take of the song and we come back into the control room to listen back and I'm like, 'I don't know if that's the feel' or whatever and Paul McCartney wanders in," Mangan said. "And out of nowhere kind of does like [puts on a British accent] 'Oh, sorry.'" But it was the second run-in that made a bigger impression.

"I ran into him like an hour later and I was like, 'I get two Paul McCartney run-ins.' And he was like, 'I was thinkin' about your song' and at that point my head exploded. And I wanted to say, 'You know, Paul, I've spent some time thinking about your songs as well' [laughs]."

Mangan did not, however, take McCartney's advice on the song. He scrapped the original and started from scratch to produce the version that you'll find on his 2018 album, More or Less.