{"id":573054,"date":"2026-03-29T23:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:48:09","slug":"why-tate-mcrae-justin-bieber-and-the-weeknd-dont-care-about-the-juno-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573054\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tate McRae, Justin Bieber and the Weeknd don\u2019t care about the Juno Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Tate McRae performs at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.Chris Pizzello\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

At the Juno Awards industry ceremony at the Hamilton Convention Centre on Saturday, there was no \u201celbows up\u201d and no \u201cCanada down.\u201d Instead, things went sideways at the event where most of the trophies were handed out in advance of Sunday\u2019s nationally televised gala held at TD Coliseum. <\/p>\n

Calgary dancer-turned-singer Tate McRae dominated, winning four major awards, including artist of the year. In prevailing over heavyweights Justin Bieber and the Weeknd, her victories were statements. Unfortunately, the statement was this: \u201cWe accept the Juno on her behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the 22-year-old Sports Car singer not show up to collect her hardware, but she failed to even provide a pre-prepared video or statement acknowledging the wins. Should the Canadian music industry be offended? Not really. <\/p>\n

Because McRae, an international superstar who first attracted attention as a contestant on the American reality television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2016, is not really part of the Canadian music industry. She came up musically through the YouTube ranks (which recognizes no borders) and signed to a U.S. label, RCA Records.<\/p>\n

Tate McRae leads Junos with four big wins, despite not attending ceremony<\/a><\/p>\n

McRae did not attend the 2025 Junos in Vancouver, where she won four times. She did perform at last year\u2019s MTV Video Music Awards in New York, where she gyrated, flipped her hair and sang in a beach setting. This weekend she kicks sand in Junos\u2019 face.<\/p>\n

McRae is up for Sunday\u2019s fan choice award, as are Bieber and the Weeknd. Neither of them is expected to attend the gala either. Like McRae, they are not products of the domestic music industry \u2212 for the most part, they\u2019ve always operated at an international level.<\/p>\n

As such, the Juno juice just isn\u2019t worth the squeeze. None of the Big Three were going to make the trip to Hamilton when losing out to the others was a distinct possibility. Losing a Grammy nomination is one thing; losing face at the Junos is another. <\/p>\n

Who can forget the 2011 Junos<\/a> in Toronto? Drake can\u2019t, that\u2019s for sure. The hometown, 6ix-representing hip hop icon hosted that year but failed to convert any of his half-dozen nominations into trophies. He\u2019s boycotted the show ever since; his last nomination was in 2017.<\/p>\n

What to watch for at the 2026 Juno Awards<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2011, U.S.-based Neil Young was invited north to accept an award for his philanthropy. To his apparent surprise, he won the prize for artist of the year too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just totally incomprehensible that I\u2019m here,\u201d he said, accepting the statuette. \u201cBut it\u2019s a great honour. Thank you very much everybody. I really appreciate it. O Canada!\u201d <\/p>\n

On the same night, a 17-year-old Bieber won the first two Juno Awards of his career. Because the teen idol from Stratford, Ont., was overseas, he thanked the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences via video message. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank everybody so much for believing in me,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of all, I want to thank my mom for raising me in Canada\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

McRae\u2019s no-show this year should be considered a mild surprise, given the Juno love she was shown last year and considering the controversy caused when she promoted the U.S. Olympic team for an NBC promotion just a month ago. She took to social media to defend herself, writing, \u201cY\u2019all know I\u2019m Canada down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do we though?<\/p>\n

On Sunday, another Albertan who made her career south of the border, Joni Mitchell, will be in Hamilton to accept the Junos\u2019 lifetime achievement award. On her 1971 song A Case of You, she sang, \u201cOn the back of a cartoon coaster, in the blue TV screen light, I drew a map of Canada \u2212 oh, Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n

One wonders what happened to that map. Somebody could use directions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Tate McRae performs at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136,4657,228],"class_list":["post-573054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-nodelphi","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}