Hayley Gene Penner, daughter of children’s entertainer Fred Penner, up for Junos songwriter award

Hayley Gene Penner was a kid the first time she held a Juno Award. It was one of her father’s.

“I was giving a fake acceptance speech and I dropped it,” she recalls.

“I busted my toe with a Juno.”

Her dad, the beloved Canadian children’s entertainer Fred Penner, would stack his awards — eventually four in total — on the family piano in their Winnipeg home.

Music Review: Ozzy tribute highlights Black Label Society’s riff-filled ‘Engines of Demolition’

Black Label Society immediately steps on the gas on “Engines of Demolition” and delivers the hard-rockin’ riffs, bluesy grooves and soulful ballads that have consistently marked the heavy metal outfit fronted by Zakk Wylde for nearly 30 years.

But the brakes fully come on – and maybe even a few tears – with a highly anticipated tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, Wylde’s longtime buddy and bandmate, on BLS' 12th studio album, out on Friday.

“Ozzy’s Song,” the 13th track, starts with a somber piano and gentle acoustic guitar – both played by Wylde – as Black Label Society's founder bares all in a heart-wrenching, but appropriately rock-filled homage to Osbourne, the heavy metal superstar who died last July at 76.

“The skies may cry / But I’ll be holding on, holding on,” Wylde sings softly without mentioning Osbourne by name, making it relatable to anyone who has experienced loss. “When all is said and done / I couldn’t ask for more.”

BTS fans stream to Seoul cafe, restaurant that once served as bases for the K-pop superstars

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Seoul cafe and restaurant that once served as bases for BTS members when they were mere K-pop trainees have been drawing visitors from around the globe ahead of the band's huge comeback concert.

Friday’s stream of visitors to Cafe Hyuga, once a dormitory where band members stayed, included Evelyn Florntino, who flew from the Philippines where she was visiting family after failing to get tickets to the group’s tour dates in the United States. Instead, she'll attend the Seoul concert, a day after the release of their fifth studio album “ARIRANG.”

“Unfortunately (I) was not lucky to get a ticket,” the Hawaii resident told The Associated Press. “So now I’m here in Korea to at least watch the free concert they’re doing tomorrow night.”

Florntino, who had researched the cafe on Google, called it “humbling” to see the modest building wedged in a narrow alley of low-rise buildings in Gangnam — a wealthy district better known for its luxury high-rises and upscale boutiques.

Ont. ticket price cap hard to enforce, could send fans to informal markets: experts

TORONTO - The Ontario government's push to cap resale ticket prices for events across the province might not be much help to fans.

Experts worry the proposed legislation the government announced Friday will be unenforceable, drive up the original price of tickets and lure people into riskier transactions. 

The province positioned the move as a way to tamp down on resellers who profit off fans by selling tickets to the hottest shows and games for several times their original price, but it's "purely symbolism," said David Clement, the North American affairs manager with the Consumer Choice Center.

"It actually doesn't help consumers because it means that it caps prices in the regulated market and regulated platforms like Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, but it doesn't cap prices outside in the unregulated market," he said.

Ontario plans to cap ticket resale prices at original value

TORONTO - Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government is planning to amend ticket sales legislation to cap resale prices, seven years after it cancelled similar planned changes.

The legislature is set to resume sitting Monday after a 14-week break and the government announced Friday that it plans to table proposed changes to the Ticket Sales Act in the coming days.

"We are taking action to help ensure Ontario fans have access to fair resale prices and are not exploited by price gouging when they buy resale tickets for their favourite events," Stephen Crawford, minister of public and business service delivery, wrote in a statement. 

"With these new measures, consumers would no longer need to worry about being ripped off in the ticket resale market, and more families and fans would have the opportunity to see their favourite band or sports team perform live."

Fu Fu Chi Chis bring decade of harmony to first full album

Most choirs sing about God, grace and gratitude: outfitted in century-old house dresses, Winnipeg’s Fu Fu Chi Chi Choir sings heartfelt odes to drunk dials, diss tracks to booty calls and romantic murder ballads with maggot-coated codas.

Manitoba Opera season features reimagined Scott Joplin work and Puccini classic

Manitoba Opera’s 54th season will feature a once-forgotten masterpiece and a returning classic.

The 2026-27 season opens with the local première of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha: A Musical Reimagining (Nov. 21, 25, 27) and closes with Madama Butterfly (April 17, 21, 23, 2027), both performed at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Treemonisha was published in 1911 by Scott Joplin, the celebrated African-American pianist and composer often referred to as the King of Ragtime. Set during the Reconstruction era in the United States, the three-act opera focuses on the story of its title character, a young freedwoman, and fuses Western classical music with blues, gospel and ragtime.

The work proved too groundbreaking for the Euro-centric opera establishment and was produced for the first time in 1970, more than 50 years after Joplin’s death. The composer was awarded a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for his contributions to American music.

Oscar-winning ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ creator Maggie Kang wants Hollywood to get weirder

Still coming down from a marathon night of Oscars celebrations that stretched well past sunrise, Maggie Kang is already thinking about what her historic win could mean for filmmakers trying to break through.

“I have friends who have pitched movies that are very specific to their upbringing and their culture, and it’s a real struggle to get those films made,” Kang tells The Canadian Press.

“So I hope the success of our film allows studios to see that there’s space for this — and really big space. There’s a want. Audiences want to see something different.”

The Korean-Canadian filmmaker’s animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” won the Academy Award for best animated feature Sunday, making her the first woman of South Korean descent to ever win in the category.

Juno Awards to feature musical tribute to Nelly Furtado including performances by Alessia Cara, Shawn Desman

HAMILTON - Nelly Furtado will receive a musical toast at the Juno Awards this year.

The ceremony will feature a tribute to the Victoria-born songstress in honour of her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Juno organizer CARAS says the tribute will include performances from Alessia Cara, Jully Black, Shawn Desman and Tanya Tagaq, "along with some very special guests."

CARAS says they'll be joined on stage by Furtado's band, led by musical director Herag Sanbalian, "who has curated a selection of her greatest hits."

What's up: Meow Mania, July Talk, chili, soup and Two Pianos, No Rodeo

Meow Mania ExpoAssiniboia Downs, 3975 Portage Ave.Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.Tickets $7.35-$31.50 at meowmaniaexpo.comCalling all proud cat parents and aspiring kitty owners — you won’t want to miss Sunday’s fair celebrating all things feline.

Highlights include a market with more than 40 vendors offering a variety of products, a cat adoption fair featuring nine local rescues, cat-care presentations on the speakers' stage and a silent auction/raffle with all proceeds donated to the rescues in attendance.

Since the first fair and adoption market in the fall of 2024, 35 cats and kittens have found new homes, and nearly $3,600 has been donated to local rescues.

— AV Kitching

Rise Against switches up mix of politics and punk

Rise Against is doing a lot of doubleheaders on its latest tour, including a two-night stand at Burton Cummings Theatre this weekend.

Cardi B calls out Hamilton for low ticket sales: ‘Not playing with y’all Banadians’

Cardi B is dragging the Hammer for slow ticket sales.

The Grammy-winning rapper called out Hamilton in a social media video after noticing that ticket sales for her show on March 31 in the city lagged behind other stops.

The "Bodak Yellow" artist, currently on her Little Miss Drama tour, said that while most tour dates are "98 per cent, 99 per cent" sold out, Hamilton was only about "80 per cent sold out."

Ticketmaster shows many seats remain for Hamilton, compared with Toronto, which is nearly sold out for her March 30 show. Tickets in Hamilton start at around $118.

Metric and Broken Social Scene add five new Canadian dates to tour

TORONTO - Metric, Broken Social Scene and Stars have added 14 new dates to their tour, including five in Canada.

The trio of indie rock bands will embark on the All the Feelings tour in June, and previously they only had one scheduled Canadian stop, in Toronto on Aug. 7.

Now, they're due to perform in Calgary on June 28 and in Edmonton the following day.

They'll also perform in London, Ont., on Oct. 3, Ottawa on Oct. 5 and Laval on Oct. 7.

Quebec’s masked band Angine de Poitrine is blowing up. Meet the men behind the noses

Quebec’s newest breakout band wears paper-mâché masks with giant phallic noses and polka-dot-speckled costumes covering their entire bodies. Their music sounds like a freewheeling jam session that wandered out of a dream and crashed into a carnival ride. Who they are is a mystery.

Naturally, the internet can’t look away.

Meet Angine de Poitrine, a duo from Saguenay, Que., whose performances went viral after Seattle’s KEXP shared a clip of their meandering math-rock set, full of angular riffs and odd time signatures, in early February. Their show at the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France, has racked up more than 2.8 million views, sparking bewildered tweets, reaction videos and fan theories about who — or what — might be behind the masks.

Known simply as Klek and Khn de Poitrine, the self-described “space-time voyagers” prefer to remain anonymous. When interviewed on camera, they must wear their whimsical costumes and “talk non-human” — via alien grunts and squeals — their publicist says.