The Juno Awards of 2020, the 49th Juno Awards, was an awards presentation that was to be held at

SaskTel Centre SaskTel Centre (formerly Credit Union Centre, and originally Saskatchewan Place; informally also known as ''Sask Place'') is an arena located in the Agriplace Industrial Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. With 15,195 permanent stadium seats ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

on 15 March 2020. The awards and associated events were cancelled due to the emergence of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

, making it the first Juno Awards since

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

to be cancelled. The award winners were announced on 29 June 2020 in an online event.

Host city bids

Saskatoon attempted to host the

2019 awards Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, but abandoned that bid due to lack of funding. The city's subsequent bid for 2020 was successful. The municipal government of Saskatoon had allocated $350,000 towards the event. Hamilton, Ontario was previously interested in bidding for the 2019 or 2020 Junos.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation

On 12 March 2020, three days before the presentation, the

Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) is a non-profit organization responsible for promoting Canadian music and artists. It administers the Juno Awards, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the MusiCounts music education cha ...

(CARAS) announced that the ceremony and all ancillary events had been cancelled due to health concerns surrounding the coronavirus, as it had been declared a pandemic by

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

the day before. Although Saskatchewan had, until shortly after the cancellation (when its chief medical officer announced the first presumptive case in the province), not had any confirmed cases of coronavirus yet, an announcement on Wednesday that the show would go on had faced backlash from residents and others. CARAS stated that it would "coordinate an alternate plan" to honour its 2020 award recipients. The Junos Songwriters' Circle, an annual event normally held as part of the Juno Awards weekend which features Canadian songwriters performing and sharing the stories behind their songs in a panel format, was relaunched in May 2020 in a

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

format, with the first episode featuring

Brett Kissel Brett Kissel (born May 27, 1990) is a Canadian country singer. He has had four number-one hits on the Canadian country chart with " Airwaves", "Drink About Me", "A Few Good Stories", and " Make a Life, Not a Living". Early life Kissel was born ...

Dominique Fils-Aimé Dominique Fils-Aimé is a Canadian singer from Quebec, whose album ''Stay Tuned!'' was shortlisted for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize and won the Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2020. Born and raised in Montrea ...

Kaia Kater Kaia Kater (born in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitar, piano and banjo player. Background Kater was born in Montreal, Quebec, where she spent her early childhood in Mile End. She started playing the banjo at 12 years old. ...

and Devon Portielje. The second episode featured

Rose Cousins A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

, William Prince,

Ed Robertson Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Barenaked Ladies. He, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988. As of Page's ...

and

Tenille Townes Tenille Nicole Townes (born Nadkrynechny; January 20, 1994) is a Canadian country music singer from Grande Prairie, Alberta. In 2011, at the age of 17, she was nominated for a Canadian Country Music Award for Female Artist of the Year. Biograp ...

; the third featured Dallas Green,

Sarah Harmer Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist. Early life Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sis ...

Joel Plaskett William Joel MacDonald Plaskett (born April 18, 1975) is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s. Plaskett performs in a number of genre ...

and

Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American ( Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these ...

; and the fourth featured Scott Helman,

Meghan Patrick Meghan Patrick (born March 25, 1987) is a Canadian-American country singer-songwriter from Bowmanville, Ontario, signed to Warner Music Canada, and Riser House Entertainment. She released her debut album, ''Grace & Grit'', on April 29, 2016. P ...

, Tom Wilson and

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...

Online ceremonies

On 18 June, the Junos announced that a virtual ceremony would be broadcast through

CBC Gem CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

on 29 June 2020.

Events

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, to Italian Canadian parents, she began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploadi ...

was the planned host of the main ceremonies. The livestream was hosted by Odario Williams and

Damhnait Doyle Damhnait Doyle (; born December 9, 1975) is a Canadian musician, singer and composer. A phonetic spelling of her first name (which is Irish) also serves as the title of her 2003 album. She was a member of Atlantic Canadian band Shaye from 200 ...

Performers

The following performers appeared during the livestream: * iskwē *

Neon Dreams Neon Dreams is a Canadian alt-pop duo consisting of vocalist Frank Kadillac and drummer Adrian Morris. They write and produce their own music with long-time collaborator Corey Lerue. They defy genre pigeonholing, as they draw freely upon pop, rock ...

* The Dead South

Nominees and winners

Jann Arden Jann Arden (born Jann Arden Anne Richards; March 27, 1962) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She is famous for her signature ballads, "Could I Be Your Girl" and " Insensitive", which is her biggest hit to date. Early life and educat ...

was set to be inducted into the

Canadian Music Hall of Fame The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established in 1978 by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) to honour Canadian musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The award presentation is held each year as part of the ...

during the main ceremonies. As the ceremony was cancelled, her formal induction instead took place at the

Juno Awards of 2021 The Juno Awards of 2021, honouring Canadian music achievements, were presented on 6 June 2021, observing the 50th anniversary of these awards. The main ceremonies were televised on CBC. The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place in Ma ...

. Nominations were announced on 18 January 2020. Winners were announced on 29 June.

People

Albums

Songs and recordings

Other

References

{{Juno Award years 2020 in Canadian music 2020 music awards Culture of Saskatoon

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Music events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Music festivals in Saskatchewan 2020 awards in Canada