Dear Gossips,

The Juno Awards happened last night in Canada. These are our Grammys, a showcase of Canadian talent, much of which, as you have seen if you live outside Canada, has had undeniable global impact – and in many cases, the support begins at home. 

Sarah McLachlan hosted the show and watching her opening monologue last night made me wonder how long it’s been since she released Fumbling Towards Ecstasy so I looked it up: the album’s 25th anniversary happened this past October. I’m mad at myself for missing it. I know every word of every song on that album, I probably listened to it every day for an entire year. Two years after that it was Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. CNN aired their 90s music retrospective on Saturday night and Alanis was a big part of that hour. Jagged Little Pill won six Juno Awards in 1996 and the Grammy Award for Album of the Year – and the musical is premiering on Broadway in October. The New York Times says it “may just be the most woke musical since Hair”. 

The Junos, then, are often about the music Canada’s about to give to the world. Right now I’m talking about Jeremy Dutcher. He’s a “classically trained operatic tenor and composer who blends his Wolastoq First Nations roots into his music” and his debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa won the Polaris Music Prize last year and the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year this weekend. He was spectacular last night and he’s performing in France, Spain, and the UK next month – if you have the chance, go see him play. You can say you were there at the beginning. Here’s a taste:

 

And here’s video of Jeremy’s acceptance speech from the Junos Gala on Saturday night. He was cut off initially but then when Arkells won, they gave him their time to finish. Here’s what that looked and sounded like when he spoke about reconciliation and what it will take and why he has hope – the entire room was silent: 

 

Finally, here’s Sarah McLachlan’s opening monologue. She looks f-cking amazing. 

 

All morning I’ve had "Elsewhere" on repeat – remember this!?

 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey