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Music malestrom
The hits and misses of the 2007 Juno nominees
By Karen Bliss
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K-os, Billy Talent and Nelly Furtado lead the pack at the 2007 JUNO Awards with five nominations a piece for the April 1st ceremony in Saskatoon, but there are some other stand-outs, both impressive and confusing.
Singer-rapper k-os, whose real name is Kevin Brereton, should be proud of his Producer of the Year nomination, alongside such heavyweights as Bob Rock (The Tragically Hip) and David Foster (Josh Groban). The fact he isn't in the Rap Recording of the Year category also shows how sales and some genre-mixing sometimes elevate an artist into the "pop" category -- "pop" meaning "popular."
The songwriter category is another nomination that artists seem to appreciate getting. This year, it would be nice if little-known recording artist Gordie Sampson takes the award for his song "Jesus, Take The Wheel" recorded by former American Idol contestant and recent Grammy winner Carrie Underwood.
Other categories, which are voted on by a jury comprised of "specialists" in that area of music, should make artists such as Kellylee Evans proud. The independent jazz singer scored a nomination for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year and will duke it out with, well, Diana Krall. So if she doesn't win, it's an absolute honour that she was picked.
The New Artist of the Year category is a bit of a puzzle. Firstly, out of all the new artists signed and released by indie and major labels, two Canadian Idols, Eva Avila and Melissa O'Neil, make the list of five. So why is that?
Firstly, according to the Canadian Academy of Recordings Arts & Sciences, the organization which presents the JUNO Awards, the final list for that category is determined by a combination of sales and voting by a panel of 10 industry experts. These Idols certainly do sell well in Canada, almost always going gold (according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada, Avila has scanned just over 55,000 and O'Neil just over 60,000), but the artistic merit is debatable, when they are spoon-fed songs to rapidly record and rush release. Surely there are two other more deserving new artists from the past year that should be honoured, but again, it's the sales that get them there.
Photo courtesy of Press photo [5/15/2006] by Anthony Mandler
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