A young London woman had a couple moments of fame alongside host Sarah McLachlan during Sunday night’s Juno broadcast.
Meriel Reed, a young artist and member of London Girls Rock Camp, told a packed audience at Budweiser Gardens that a $25,000 donation from the Juno charity, MusiCounts, had a profound impact on the bootcamp-style music program.
“This year, we received new guitars, keyboards, and recording equipment,” she said. “This made us feel valued and empowered, and I know these instruments will inspire the next generation of artists, like me.”
It was one of a few particularly London moments during the show.
The cheerleading team and marching band from Western University took the stage during Loud Luxury’s performance of the song that earned them Dance Recording of the Year, “Body.” The DJ duo, made up of Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace met while studying at Western.
Arkells frontman Max Kerman gave a shout out to Stobies, a local pizza shop, during an acceptance speech for winning the award for Group of the Year.
“4 a.m., we’ll see you there. Stobies,” he later reiterated to journalists gathered in a separate media room, set up outside the venue.
The bulk of the awards were handed out during the previous night’s gala dinner event at the London Convention Centre, where — on the heels of winning Rock Album of the Year — Kerman talked about boarding a Greyhound bus to the Forest City, and playing for a crowd of around six people at Call The Office.
On the red carpet Sunday, he told Liz Gogol from 980 CFPL’s brother station, FM96, that they have a “fondness” for the Forest City.
“London’s one of the first places we toured outside of Hamilton, when we first started,” he said. “We graduated from Call The Office to London Music Hall, we’ve played at Western and Fanshawe, we’ve now played Budweiser Gardens last year.”
For others, London was less familiar territory.
Elisapie, who was nominated for Indigenous Music Album of the Year — won the night previous by Jeremy Dutcher — also received great applause for acknowledging the longstanding Indigenous groups in the London area, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaune, and the Lenape.
“I’m just really happy, I’m just super calm,” she told reporters after coming off the stage. “It was done in a way that was very calming for TV. So it was good, it was good to take the time.”
You can find a run-down of the winners here. The broadcast marks the end of a star studded week in London.