LOS ANGELES, CA – The American counterpart to Canada’s largest music industry awards show celebrated their best-and-brightest stars Sunday evening, with a gala event that rivals even the glamorous opulence of The Junos.
If you missed The Grammys – as they’re known – don’t worry. Canadian Music fans interested in learning more about the quaint music scene happening in the United States will be will be happy to know the event happens every year, and 2014 was definitely cute to see. Although there are a number of differences between the two, otherwise equal, award shows.
“The biggest difference is the statue,” said Juno Award organizer Miranda Friedman.
“Their statue is a miniature golden Gramophone, hence the name ‘Grammys’. Our statute varies from year-to-year as a savvy cost saving measure, since the company we contract-out offers to make them all for free if they’re allowed to use our award show for publicity to show off different designs.”
Another major difference is location. As most know, the 2014 Juno Awards will take place at the end of March in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city that has sprouted several great recording artists including BTO, The Guess Who, and Randy Bachman. Sunday’s “Grammys” were held in America’s Winnipeg – Los Angeles
The Grammy awards even invited Michael Bublé, Drake and Justin Bieber; Juno award winning artists who first rocketed to fame across Canada after achieving wide commercial success abroad.
Pharrell Williams, although not a Canadian, did nod to his appreciation of the upcoming Junos Awards when he dressed up as a Mountie on their red carpet, perhaps subtly hinting at his eagerness to receive a nomination for Canadian music’s biggest prize.
The U.S. stars are different too. American audiences appear to be enamoured with recording artist super-couple Beyoncé (rhymes with fiance) and Jay-Z (pronounced Jay-zed), who performed as part of the ceremony’s entertainment. From the Canadian music perspective, it may be hard to fathom just how big this couple really is to U.S. audiences. One source said that it would be like if The Tragically Hip married, and then performed with Jian Ghomeshi.
Some major award categories at the “Grammys” even went to artists who may play well to a Canadian music audience. Winners included Best Rock Album going to a band called Led Zeppelin (approximately Rush), Best New Artist to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (basically a male Tegan and Sara), and Album of the Year to Daft Punk (very similar to Anne Murray).
Check back shortly, when we will be discussing the American version of the Canadian Screen Awards happening on March 2nd, which most Americans call “The Oscars”.
