Manitoba Music
Winnipeg Welcomes Two Music Awards Shows
After an overwhelmingly successful Juno weekend, Winnipeg may be the new hot spot for music awards. The wealth of talent, generous community spirit, and solid industry infrastructure are all contrinbuting factors to the decision to name the city as host music celebrations like the Juno Awards, which taught Canada one big thing: Manitoba rocks.
The latest awards show to announce Winnipeg as its home is the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. The eight annual event will venture from its usual Toronto home for the first time on an as-yet undetermined date in 2006. Winnipeg is a natural choice for CAMA organizors, after Manitoba acts took home a third of the awards at this year's event in November. 2004 winners like Eagle & Hawk (which netted three trophies), Burnt - Project 1, and Clint Dutiaume all call Manitoba home, as do last year's Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Music award winner Errol Ranvile (aka the legendary C-Weed) and Industry Award winner Ness Michaels of Sunshine Records. Winnipeg is home to the Aboriginal Television Network, Native Communications Inc. Radio, and some of the best Aboriginal talent this country has to offer.
The prominent members of the Aboriginal music community recently got together to form the Aboriginal Host Committee, with spurred a dramatic increase in Aboriginal music's participation and exposure at the 2005 Juno Awards, including an impressive Aboriginal music showcase and honouring ceremony at the Burton Cummings Theatre on April 1.
. This year's CAMAs, which art part of the large Canadian Aboriginal Festival, are slated for the Rogers Centre in Toronto November 25 to 27.
Winnipeg will also host the increasingly popular Western Canadian Music Awards in 2006, after the ceremony makes its first appearance in Vancouver on October 20-23, 2005. The WCMAs, formerly the Prairie Music Awards, include artists from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Albert, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Having grown significantly in the two years of its existence, the WCMAs include a popular festival of live music, as well as a music conference featuring industry big wigs from across the globe.
Last year, Manitoba acts were nominated for a stunning 33 awards in 20 categories, taking home nine trophies in a showing second only to British Columbia. Acts like The Wailin' Jennys, The Weakerthans, Big Dave McLean, Doc Walker, LuLu and the TomCat, Robert Turner, and former Winnipegger Marilyn Lerner took home awards at the ceremony hosted by another former Winnipegger, Bif Naked.
Winnipeg hosted the last Prairie Music Awards in 2002 before the event - which at that time included Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta artists only - expanded to include artists from British Columbia and Yukon and became the Western Canadian Music Awards.
The latest awards show to announce Winnipeg as its home is the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. The eight annual event will venture from its usual Toronto home for the first time on an as-yet undetermined date in 2006. Winnipeg is a natural choice for CAMA organizors, after Manitoba acts took home a third of the awards at this year's event in November. 2004 winners like Eagle & Hawk (which netted three trophies), Burnt - Project 1, and Clint Dutiaume all call Manitoba home, as do last year's Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Music award winner Errol Ranvile (aka the legendary C-Weed) and Industry Award winner Ness Michaels of Sunshine Records. Winnipeg is home to the Aboriginal Television Network, Native Communications Inc. Radio, and some of the best Aboriginal talent this country has to offer.
The prominent members of the Aboriginal music community recently got together to form the Aboriginal Host Committee, with spurred a dramatic increase in Aboriginal music's participation and exposure at the 2005 Juno Awards, including an impressive Aboriginal music showcase and honouring ceremony at the Burton Cummings Theatre on April 1.
. This year's CAMAs, which art part of the large Canadian Aboriginal Festival, are slated for the Rogers Centre in Toronto November 25 to 27.
Winnipeg will also host the increasingly popular Western Canadian Music Awards in 2006, after the ceremony makes its first appearance in Vancouver on October 20-23, 2005. The WCMAs, formerly the Prairie Music Awards, include artists from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Albert, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Having grown significantly in the two years of its existence, the WCMAs include a popular festival of live music, as well as a music conference featuring industry big wigs from across the globe.
Last year, Manitoba acts were nominated for a stunning 33 awards in 20 categories, taking home nine trophies in a showing second only to British Columbia. Acts like The Wailin' Jennys, The Weakerthans, Big Dave McLean, Doc Walker, LuLu and the TomCat, Robert Turner, and former Winnipegger Marilyn Lerner took home awards at the ceremony hosted by another former Winnipegger, Bif Naked.
Winnipeg hosted the last Prairie Music Awards in 2002 before the event - which at that time included Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta artists only - expanded to include artists from British Columbia and Yukon and became the Western Canadian Music Awards.