Gospel artists singing Junos’ praises

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This article was published 25/09/2024 (665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Winnipeg songwriter Jaylene Johnson, it’s good news the Juno Awards have decided to keep the contemporary Christian/gospel album of the year category for 2025.

“I’m happy for the artists who were planning to submit to that category for the awards this year that they’ll still have that opportunity,” said Johnson, who is chair of the advisory committee for the category.

Johnson was responding to a Monday announcement by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), the non-profit organization that runs the Juno Awards, that it is reinstating the category, along with the reggae and children’s album categories, after blowback from the music community.

The announcement came after a letter was obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this month indicating the three categories would be put on hiatus, together with the international album of the year award.

In its announcement, CARAS said the international-album category would be removed, but the other three will remain.

“I don’t know if it’s for more than just one year, but I’m grateful to CARAS for taking the contemporary Christian/gospel category off hiatus,” Johnson said.

“I know they work hard on behalf of Canadian artists. I’m really glad that Christian/gospel artists still have the chance to be celebrated at the Junos. I know of many fantastic new releases in the Christian/gospel space that are eligible. It’s great that they can now be submitted.”

As for the controversy that followed when news about the proposed hiatus was reported by the media, Johnson said it had at least one positive outcome.

“It got people talking about Christian/gospel music and about its value and contributions to Canadian culture. It’s been great to reflect on why it matters,” she said.

In a press release about the decision, CARAS said the organization had “undergone a strategic review, including working closely with our nominating and voting committee to conduct the annual review of all nominating and voting practices for the Juno Awards.”

Other changes to the 2025 Juno Awards include the addition of two new categories, it said. The award for South Asian music recording comes after British Columbia-based musician Karan Aujla became the first Punjabi artist to win the viewer-voted Juno fan choice award earlier this year.

Another new category, songwriter of the year (non-performer), will award creators who pen music and lyrics for other musicians. It divides the existing songwriter category into two, with the other awarding artists who have written their own work.

Various other changes will also take effect for the 2025 award show.

Breakthrough artist and breakthrough group will now be a single category with 10 nominees, instead of separate awards with five nominees.

CARAS is also tweaking the rules around two of its marquee Juno awards to give more weight to Canadian artists’ popularity.

In recent years, nominees for both the artist and group of the year categories have been determined based on a 50-50 split between CARAS voters and consumption data that included sales and streams.

As of this year, the formula for both categories will reduce the weight of the delegate vote to 25 per cent, while weighting radio audience data at 12.5 per cent, social data at 12.5 per cent and global listenership at 50 per cent.

The rap album and single categories will also factor in consumption data for the first time, split 50-50 with votes.

Two Indigenous categories — contemporary Indigenous artist or group of the year and traditional Indigenous artist or group of the year — will be also rebranded as recording categories to move the focus from solely celebrating the artists to honouring their music.

The 54th Juno Awards ceremony will be held in Vancouver on March 30, 2025.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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