The Weeknd, Braids, DFA1979 Win Junos; Arcade Fire Accept Humanitarian Award
The Juno Awards, aka the Canadian Grammys, are going down tonight. But a bunch of awards were already presented last night at a gala dinner in Calgary before the main ceremony, including a few big ones. As CBC News reports, the Weeknd took home Artist Of The Year for the second year in a row, and he also beat out Tobias Jesso Jr. for Songwriter Of The Year and won R&B/Soul Recording Of The Year for Beauty Behind The Madness. Alternative Album Of The Year went to Braids’ Deep In The Iris, and Rock Album Of The Year was taken by Death From Above 1979’s The Physical World. “This is about as surreal as it gets,” DFA1979’s Sebastien Grainger said while accepting the award.
As previously announced, Arcade Fire were honored with with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for their work in Haiti, and their collaborators Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld won Instrumental Album Of The Year for Never Were The Way She Was. In addition, Adele won Video Of The Year for “Hello” and beat out Hozier, Meghan Trainor, One Direction, and Vance Joy to take home International Album Of The Year for 25. And finally, Drake won Rap Recording Of The Year for If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and Pop Album Of The Year went to Justin Bieber’s Purpose.
You can find a list of winners for all 35 awards that were handed out yesterday here.
UPDATE: In addition to Artist Of The Year, Songwriter Of The Year, and R&B/Soul Recording Of The Year, the Weeknd took home Single Of The Year and Album Of The Year.