From Arkells to Rush, big stars pack into Hamilton for 55th Juno Awards

Thousands packed into downtown Hamilton Sunday night for the 55th annual Juno Awards at TD Coliseum.

Legendary artist Joni Mitchell as well as Nelly Furtado were just a couple of the Canadian musicians who were honoured that night.

“Good evening Hamilton — I haven’t been here in many many years,” said Mitchell.

“Honestly I’m just really proud to be Canadian,” said Furtado to the crowd at the coliseum. “I live in Canada. I make my music in Canada.”

The singer was later inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

The night kicked off with the Toronto progressive rock band Rush. It’s the first time the group has played publicly with a new drummer since the death of Neil Peart in 2020.

The Beaches made history as the first all-female band to win Group of the Year three years in a row.

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Lead vocalist for The Beaches Jordan Miller made a shout out to the City of Hamilton on the carpet, with bandmates Leandra Earl and Elza Enman-McDaniel complimenting the space and a recent trip to an A&W restaurant Saturday night.

Also on the orange carpet — as it was called — were Hamilton’s Arkells.

Following a sound check for their performance, Max Kerman with the Arkells expressed how excited he was to see the Junos in Hamilton.

“Oh it’s the best,” said Kerman. “Mike (DeAngelis) went home for a nap, between sound check and the show and yeah it was great. Nice to see a bunch of old friends and really see the city come alive.”

“I’m a Black R&B singer, and I’m a Black woman, and there are not very many of us and in Canada we do it like no other,” said Toronto singer-songwriter Jully Black. “We are the ones that have set the stage.”

Later in the evening, Prime Minister Mark Carney presented Mitchell with her lifetime achievement award.

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Mitchell is one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s.

“Her hit songs have been covered more than 8,000 times — not downloaded, covered,” said Carney, “by musicians as varied as Bob Dylan, Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox.”

“I wore this dress because it says in Chinese, it says ‘happy-happy, happy happy happy’,” said Mitchell referring to the dress she wore on stage, “so I’m ‘happy-happy, happy happy happy’ to be here.”

The night ended with a group performance of Mitchell’s 2002 hit Big Yellow Taxi including Sarah McLachlan.

“So, some time in the studio, some time in my brain, putting it all together and I think I’m really proud of it,” said McLachlan. “Joni gave me the seal of approval yesterday, so yeah, I hope everybody loves it as much as I do.”

“It’s Joni, you know. It’s just such an honour to be able to sing her songs and to honour her in this way — it’s fantastic,” said McLachlan.

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