Juno Awards 2018: all the best moments

There's an extravaganza of events, concerts, showcases, parties and, of course, awards during Junos week, and we'll be keeping track of all the highlights right here. From behind the scenes at the CBC Music media room to q Live and the Juno gala dinner and awards broadcast, we'll be at every event, catching all the best — and behind-the-scenes — moments.

Scroll down for the highlights so far, and check back daily for updates.

We opened the CBC Music media lounge today, and among the first musicians to visit were IsKwé, Terra Lightfoot, Dan Mangan, and Clairmont The Second. It was non-stop talk about Jann Arden, karaoke jams and the songs that changed their lives.    

At 7 p.m., Tom Power hosted q Live at the Vogue Theatre, a show that included performances by Lights and Ruth B, as well as chats with k-os, comedian Ivan Decker and more.

For k-os' block party — a playlist dedicated to his current Vancouver home — the rapper chose to play Matthew Good's "Load Me Up," Rascalz' (feat. Barrington Levy and k-os) "Top of the World," the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" and Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad." 

"Vancouver's the place where you can come and get weird," k-os said. 

Vancouver Block Party with k-os | q Live at the Junos

7 years ago

Duration 10:27

Hip hop artist k-os talks about his love for Vancouver and some of the music that came from this city.
 

Jann Arden and Bob Rock, sporting very similar hairstyles, chatted about Arden's new album, These are the Days, and what it was like to work together on that new release ("I've learned more from this guy in the last six or seven years than I did in my 40-year career of writing love songs," Arden said, of Rock). 

While Arden was talking, she dropped the f-word, and Tom reached out to the crowd to make sure everyone had survived. 

"Is everyone OK? Is the CBC still a thing?" he joked.

Ivan Decker, nominated for comedy album of the year at the Junos (a category that has been reinstated after a 33-year hiatus), did a stand-up set, after which he played to the hometown crowd by saying, "When you come to a show in Vancouver, it's a lot easier to get kombucha." 

Ivan Decker's Stand-Up Routine | q Live at the Junos

7 years ago

Duration 5:56

Ivan Decker takes the floor with this stand-up routine during q Live at the Junos, a taping in front of a live audience at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver.

Related: Watch the full show: q Live at the Junos​

We got a sneak peak of the Juno Awards setup in the Rogers Arena this morning, with Lights soundchecking on the grand piano.

JB the First Lady spent some time with us for an interview about her work, decolonization and where Indigenous hip-hop is headed — keep an eye out for our video with her soon.

Which Juno-nominated artists would Weaves crank, karaoke or collab with? We'll find out.

IsKwé, Weaves' Jasmyn Burke, Ria Mae, Jess Moskaluke and the Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman performed at q's pop-up show hosted by Tom Power, held at Bryan Adams' the Warehouse Studio. It was a powerful hour of music, with each artist performing two songs. 

"I'm a woman. In music. And I'm surrounded by men all the time. Except for now, which is sick," Lindeman said, describing how "men inhabit the [music] world so comfortably," while she hasn't felt that way. "I need to do everything in my power to attain something, because otherwise no one's ever going to care."

​After Moskaluke's goosebump-inducing performance, Burke stood up for her performance and said, "Every time you watch performers, you're like, 'This is what I need to learn.'"

Mae performed a new song and her hit "Bend" on acoustic guitar, reminding everyone that she used to write and perform songs acoustically before all her pop hits.

"It's like Man of the Woods ... it makes me look earthy and like a real songwriter," she joked. 

The annual Juno Cup wasn't just a hockey game last night: there was also a skills competition and a sing-off between Jim Cuddy and hockey player Natalie Spooner. 

JunoFest officially kicked off Friday night, and Land of Talk played to a loving crowd at Fortune Sound Club, followed by a face-melting Weaves performance.

CBC Music host Julie Nesrallah went to the JunoFest jazz showcase at Frankie's Jazz Club with performances by Mike Downes, Christine Jensen and more.

Terra Lightfoot, Rose Cousins and surprise guest Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies were among the performers at Six Shooter Records' Outlaws and Gunslingers showcase, presented by CBC Music.

The Jerry Cans had to try and find cabs in order to make it across town from the Railway Club, where they'd been performing, in order to make it to the Gunslingers showcase for their time slot, but once they finally arrived at the venue, they put on a rollicking, foot-stomping three-song set, singing fully in Inuktitut the whole time. 

Saturday kicked off with Juno Fan Fare, where music fans could meet artists like Tim Hicks, High Valley, Scott Helman, Daniel Caesar and more.  

Paolo Pietropaolo, host of In Concert on CBC Music, welcomed classical music fans to CBC Vancouver's Studio 1 for a showcase featuring a number of this year's nominees in the four classical categories.

Baritone Philippe Sly and guitarist John Charles Britton brought out the singer-songwriter side of Franz Schubert with selections from their Juno-nominated Schubert Sessions. You could hear a pin drop.

Jan Lisiecki celebrated his "champagne" birthday on March 23. The party continued as the 23-year-old sat at the Steinway in Studio 21 and laid down a pretty phenomenal take of Chopin's Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante from his now Juno-winning album.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, who famously pulled off a Juno four-peat from 2004 to 2007, was nominated this year for Mother of Light, her album of sacred Armenian songs with Coro Vox Aeterna. Bayrakdarian explained how she conceived the album as a loving tribute to her mother, and when she and pianist Robert Koenig filled Studio 1 with an excerpt, everyone felt it.

Thirty-seven awards were given out at the Juno Awards gala tonight, which leaves six to be handed out during the broadcast on Sunday, March 25.

Diana Krall won two Junos, and her second — Jack Richardson Producer of the Year — marks only the fifth time a woman has won the producer award since its inception in 1975.

"I've been co-producing for a while… and I'm over the moon to be acknowledged as producer of the year… I didn't expect this. Thank you, thank you, thank you," Krall said.

Jan Lisiecki won the Juno for classical album of the year: large ensemble for his album Chopin: Works for Piano & Orchestra with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. It's Lisiecki's first Juno win, after three previous nominations — at only 23 years old.

Juno nominee Clairmont the Second gave a hell of a performance of his new single "Tortoise."

Jocelyn Morlock was one of four composers commissioned for the NAC's Life Reflected project that created multimedia portraits of exceptional Canadian women. For it, she wrote My Name is Amanda Todd — a tribute to the 15-year-old girl from Port Coquitlam, B.C., who took her own life following years of cyber-bullying. 

Morlock's album won the Juno for classical composition of the year tonight, and Amanda's mother, Carol Todd, was onstage with Morlock to accept the award.

"This is a bittersweet moment because this is a dream that Amanda always wanted, was to have her name and her memory onstage because she was a performing artist," Carol said after Morlock received her Juno. "She sang, she acted; a week before she took her own life, she had asked me to enroll her back into singing lessons so that she could pursue her dream. And meeting Jocelyn and the NAC and believing that Amanda had a voice was unbelievable, and I'm just so choked up with emotion right now because this is continuing Amanda's message and continuing her voice that was silenced.

"But we are all sitting in this room to create and to continue it on for the safety of our families and our children and I just don't know what to say anymore, I'm just in shock, I think. Thank you, Jocelyn; thank you everyone who has continued to make this dream move on, move forward, for all of our children in the next generations."

Arcade Fire received the International Achievement Award tonight, and the band took the stage for a poignant speech about borders, excess, and how much the band owes to Montreal. Win Butler also included a little shoutout to Feist: "I remember the first time I saw Feist playing the guitar, she was just so much better than me."

Canadian broadcast veteran Denise Donlon received the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the gala — the second woman to win out of 34 previous recipients — and she called out a slight twist on Frances McDormand's Oscar speech: "To all the men who pledge to champion and support women, stand up …there they are ladies, look at them, because they are your allies on the march toward gender parity." 

Gord Downie's brothers, Mike and Patrick Downie, wore denim jackets with matching pins in tribute to their late brother when they received his Juno Awards for songwriter and alternative album of the year.

"There's a lot of material that he was doing all along, a lot of material that he created after he found out he was going to die, and just a lot of archival material. There's just a lot of Gord to keep going. That's what we're here to do. To keep promoting this artist who left a lot behind," they said.

At the Songwriters' Circle on Sunday afternoon, Jann Arden and Bob Rock co-hosted IsKwé, Scott Helman, Rose Cousins, Ruth B and Jim Cuddy. Ahead of her first song, IsKwé turned to Rock and said, "I told you I had a story.... Turns out we're related! Hi, Dad!" There were huge laughs and IsKwé clarified that she and Rock were actually distant cousins, and that when she was 10 years old, she actually rode in Rock's limo at a family reunion in Manitoba.

Later, Arden closed the show with a massive sing-along to her hit "Good Mother." 

Daniel Caesar won the first award during Sunday night's Junos broadcast, for R&B/soul recording of the year. The highlight: Caesar's reaction face.

The powerful trio of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Grimes and Lights travelling together throughout the red carpet. "It's kind of a love fest. Three little fangirls get to worship each other," said Sainte-Marie of the three of them together, later in the media room.

The Jerry Cans gave a moving performance of "Ukiuq," with member Andrew Morrison's guitar sporting a "Justice for Colten and Tina" sticker.

Jessie Reyez | Breakthrough Artist of the Year | Juno Awards 2018

7 years ago

Duration 1:46

Jessie Reyez wins Breakthrough Artist of the Year at this year's 2018 Juno Awards.

"It means a lot to get this love at home," said a tearful Jessie Reyez after winning the Juno for breakthrough artist of the year, her parents onstage with her

Jessie Reyez & Daniel Caesar | Figures | Juno Awards 2018

7 years ago

Duration 5:14

Jessie Reyez and Daniel Caesar perform "Figures" at the 2018 Juno Awards.

Northern Touch All-Stars (Rascalz, Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair) presented the award for rap recording of the year to Tory Lanez, and then did an impromptu performance of their hit "Northern Touch." The crowd — and the media room — lost it in excitement. 

"We bum-rushed the Junos, that's what we did." — Kardinal Offishall later said in the media room.

Barenaked Ladies Reunion Performance | Juno Awards 2018

7 years ago

Duration 7:53

Barenaked Ladies perform "One Week" and "If I had $1000000" in a special reunion performance at the 2018 Juno Awards.

It was a roller coaster of emotion in a short timeframe, as every single person cried (we assume) when Sarah Harmer and Kevin Hearn performed "Introduce Yerself" as a tribute to the late Gord Downie. Dallas Green followed that with "Bobcaygeon," and Harmer joined him on harmonies. No dry eyes in the house.

While Barenaked Ladies and Steven Page gave their acceptance speech, the cut to what looked like Page's young son in the audience trying so hard not to cry when his dad was also trying not to cry was another emotional moment in an already heightened night. Check it out at 4:10:

Reyez and Caesar paired up for a heart-wrenching version of Reyez's hit song "Figures," from which we are still recovering.

No one was sure it would happen, but Steven Page joined Barenaked Ladies to perform "One Week" and "If I had a Million Dollars," which pretty much everyone joined in on by the end: Northern Touch All-Stars, Jann Arden, the Jerry Cans, Jim Cuddy — you name it.

"Thirty years now, Kraft. Isn't it time for a sponsorship?" joked Page before singing a bit of Maestro's "Let Your Backbone Slide" and finishing the impromptu medley.

Wherever you are in the world, you can watch the 2018 Juno Awards broadcast live from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver this Sunday, March 25 at cbcmusic.ca/junos.