June 2022 | Unstoppable Charlotte Cardin

Part in the lead with six selections, Charlotte Cardin shone at the 51st Juno Awards. The Montreal singer won her fourth trophy (album of the year) in a sober gala where performances – including her own – were in the spotlight.

Alexandre Vigneault
The Press

In front of Bieber and Mendes

“I’m completely in shock,” said Charlotte Cardin, receiving the award for album of the year. We understand her: she had just styled big names like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes at the finish line. The Montreal singer was the big winner at Juno 2022, where she took home four of the six awards she was up for. In addition to being named artist of the year – ahead of The Weeknd and, once again, Justin Bieber – she won awards for pop album of the year for phoenix and song of the year for Meaningless, which she performed with aplomb during the gala presented to CBC. Only the public prize escaped him during the awards ceremony held in Toronto on Sunday evening.

Jessia, Arkells and Haviah Mighty

Arkells, who offered the first performance of the evening, won the Juno awarded to the group of the year. A little earlier, Haviah Mighty had won the first prize given on the air, that of the best rap album, for Stock Exchange, which she dedicated to women in the world of hip-hop. Jessia from British Columbia was crowned revelation of the year. Several Quebecers in the running had already distinguished themselves during an award ceremony held on Saturday, including Xavier Dolan (clip of the year for Easy On Me by Adele), Cœur de pirate (French-language album for Impossible to love) and Kaytranda (dance album for Bail). The Weeknd also won two awards on Saturday, including one awarded to songwriter of the year.

Diversity

Actor Simu Liu, host of the evening, did not cause waves with his kind jokes. His only small audacity was to make fun of the punch delivered by Will Smith to Chris Rock during the last Oscars. What stands out the most is the emphasis placed on the diversity of the Canadian music scene. The evening was marked in particular by the performances of Tesher, a Saskatchewan artist whose reggaeton pop sometimes has Bollywood accents, Mustafa the Poet, a singer with Sudanese roots who won the Juno for alternative album of the year (for When Smoke Rises), and a number featuring Indigenous hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids. We also heard a little French: the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, and the singer Roxane Bruneau spoke in French to the public in Toronto when presenting an award.

People’s Favorite Mendes

Young Shawn Mendes was honored at the gala where he received the International Achievement Award. “When I was young, I thought that if I could write just one hit, people would love me and that would be enough,” he said, before pointing out that we live in a world where it’s easy to believe that we are “never enough”. His message to the audience was quite the opposite: “What you are is already enough. Shawn Mendes returned to the set later that evening to accept the audience award. “I have the chance to do what I love most in life, and it’s thanks to you,” he simply told the audience.

Arcade Fire in Fence

This fairly quiet gala ended on a slightly more epic note. Arcade Fire, whose album WE has just appeared, offered the last performance of the evening. Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and the other members of the Montreal-born group were accompanied by a few teenage percussionists to perform Unconditional I (Lookout Kid). Arcade Fire offered a wise performance, like the rest of the evening, which ended under a shower of yellow confetti.