Congratulations to the 2015 JUNO Award nominees, which were announced by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) yesterday at a press conference at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. The full list of nominees is now available on the JUNOs website. Of the 179 nominees across 41 categories, 89 are receiving the first nomination of their career. Music from the nominees is available in the new JUNO Room on iTunes.

Music Canada is proud to return as the sponsor of the Album of the Year Award category. Nominees in that category include:

  • Where I Belong Bobby Bazini Universal
  • Wild Life Hedley Universal
  • Popular Problems Leonard Cohen Columbia*Sony
  • No Fixed Address Nickelback Nickelback II Productions*Universal
  • Serge Fiori Serge Fiori GSI*eOne

The awards will be presented during JUNO Week in Hamilton, which runs March 9th-15th, culminating with the JUNO Awards Broadcast, which will air on CTV from Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre. Tickets for the JUNO Awards 2015 are on sale now at Ticketmaster. The JUNOs also announced that Hamilton’s own Arkells will perform at the Broadcast show, joining previously announced performers Hedley, Kiesza, MAGIC!, and Shawn Mendes. A number of events for JUNO Week have also been announced, including JUNO Cup, JUNO Fan Fare, JUNOfest, and JUNO Songwriters’ Circle. Additionally, the JUNO Photography Exhibition and the JUNO Tour of Canadian Art are on now through late April at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

Hamilton is “is positively amped about hosting the 2015 JUNOS,” said Tim Potocic, Chair of the 2015 JUNO Awards Host Committee earlier this year. This will be the first time since 2001 that Hamilton has hosted the awards, which also hosted the awards in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1999. As Potocic notes, the City of Hamilton has embraced the music sector as an economic driver, with the creation of Hamilton Music Strategy and the establishment of the City’s Music and Film Office late last year.

It is estimated that the JUNOs will generate an economic impact of more than $10 million for Hamilton. Each city that has hosted the JUNO Awards has seen an economic impact of more than $10 million, said CARAS President & CEO Allan Reid at a Canadian Heritage Committee earlier this year, with more than $100 million in economic impact seen across Canada over the past 10 years.