Juno Awards will return to Toronto birth place for golden anniversary in 2021
Posted September 24, 2019 7:00 am.
Last Updated September 24, 2019 7:48 am.
The Juno Awards will pop the cork for their golden anniversary on the streets of Toronto.
Organizers of the country’s biggest music awards show say they’ll mark their 50th year by returning to their hometown with a historic celebration.
A week of music events will culminate with the live broadcast from the Scotiabank Arena on March 28, 2021.
It’ll mark the first time in a decade the Junos take place in the city.
?The Biggest Moment in Canadian Music. EVER.
#JUNOS50
: March 2021
: #Toronto@CBCMusic @ScotiabankArena, @cityoftoronto, @ONgov pic.twitter.com/Bce7GY0Ihp— The JUNO Awards (@TheJUNOAwards) September 24, 2019
In 2011, Toronto native Drake hosted the broadcast and led with six nominations. He walked away without picking up a single award.
It appears to have caused a rift between the performer and Juno organizers that hasn’t mended. Drake hasn’t attended the awards show since, and didn’t submit his 2018 album Scorpion or 2017’s More Life for consideration.
Allan Reid, head of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, says the benchmark event in 2021 will reflect on the Juno Awards’ Toronto origins, where they originally started as the Gold Leaf Awards in 1970.
The show was renamed the Juno Awards a year later in honour of Pierre Juneau, the CRTC’s first chairman and a key architect in the creation of Canadian content regulations in 1971.
