'We fell madly in love': how Corey Hart met his wife at the 1993 Junos
For his My Junos Moment, Hart recalls meeting singer Julie Masse for the first time while presenting onstage
If you ask Corey Hart what his favourite Junos moment is, it doesn't take him long to answer. To this day, he credits the award show for introducing him to his wife, Montreal singer Julie Masse.
"Without music or the Junos, I would have never met my precious Julie," he told the Junos audience in 2019, when he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Watching the moment now, he gets emotional, recalling that he met Masse in 1993 on the Junos stage.
He was nominated that year for best male vocalist of the year and was asked to present an award for group of the year along with the up-and-coming Masse, who was nominated for most promising female vocalist.
"I was unfamiliar with Julie but because she was from my hometown [of Montreal] and I love my hometown, I love my province of Quebec, I was like, 'Yeah, that sounds awesome.'"
When they came off the stage, Masse's manager asked Hart if he'd like to write songs for Masse even though, at the time, Hart had only ever written for himself. He agreed, and the two worked on the 1994 album, Circle of One, Masse's English language debut — and last official studio album.
"So that's what we did, but obviously at the same time it ended my career because we fell in love and that was the end for me," says Masse. "I lived and still live and breathe for Corey."
Hart, for his part, also stepped back from the spotlight to focus on family, as well as work behind the scenes, even writing two songs for Céline Dion's 1997 album Let's Talk About Love.
"I realized music and love were the two most powerful forces in my life," Hart says, adding that him and Masse "fell madly in love, and 27 years and four kids later, we're still going strong."
Watch Hart and Masse'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.
