The 2019 Juno Awards in London, Ontario

The JUNO AWARDS wrap-up is here! I’m dishing everything about my Juno Awards Week experience as their Official Social Media Influencer. Read about what I wore, the red carpet experience, the events, the artists, and the parties! See who I met and who I was too chicken to talk to. Plus, see all of my behind-the-scenes photos!

Juno Week

I was so honoured to be chosen as an Official Influencer for the Juno Awards in my hometown of London, Ontario. Canadian music receives such worldwide recognition these days because of all of the amazing talents that call Canada home.

Juno Week is 5 days of activities that take place leading up to the culminating Juno Awards night. What I love most about this is that it gives fans many opportunities to see their favourite singers perform in smaller, more intimate settings. You can even catch them playing hockey at the Juno Cup… now it doesn’t get more Canadian than that! After I flew in from Calgary, I attended the Welcome Reception and then checked out the Comedy Show featuring the hilarious nominees for comedy album of the year. I laughed so hard that my face hurt. I also really enjoyed seeing some of the emerging artists at the TD Green Room media event.

Songwriters’ Circle

If you love music and want to attend something more intimate and low key than the Songwriters’ Circle is for you. This two-hour event brings 4-5 artists on stage together in two different sets. It’s an informal setting where they each choose a couple of songs to sing acoustically but the best part is that they tell the stories behind each song before they play. There is a lot of interaction and joking and as a spectator, it is truly something special to watch. I felt extremely fortunate to see some of my personal favourites like David Foster, Tyler Shaw and Dan Mangan.

Awards Gala

Truth be told, walking the red carpet has been on my bucket list since I was in high school. I finally got to strut my stuff for the cameras at the Juno Awards Gala reception. This event is a formal sit-down dinner where all of the Junos are presented to the artists and they have a chance to make their acceptance speeches. To be totally transparent, we weren’t given tickets to stay for the dinner but I did sneak in just in time to watch Michael Bublé present David Foster with the Humanitarian Award. I walked right by the dreamy lead singer Max Kerman from The Arkells as I was leaving but totally chickened out in saying hello!

Red Carpet and Reception

THIS was the highlight of my entire weekend! Call me a “fangirl” but I loved getting to finally meet some of the nominees in person. After walking the red carpet and interacting with the throngs of surrounding media, we were ushered into the Bud Gardens to wait until it was time to take our seats. I finally mustered the courage (a couple of glasses of champagne did help) to introduce myself and get some photos the Canadian celebrities. Meeting Dan Mangan, Tyler Shaw, The Sheepdogs and Rick Mercer was really amazing and it made me so happy to see how genuinely kind they were! I also finally had the opportunity to meet some of my family members as Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo is my cousin (my maiden name was Cuddy) and I’d never had a chance to meet his children before! That was a pretty great moment and I always enjoy catching up with Jim.

Juno Awards Show

Sunday evening was the three-hour televised Juno Awards show. And what a spectacular show it was! Canadian music legend, Sarah McLachlan, was an absolutely stunning host. Performances by Loud Luxury, Bülow and The Arkells, had everyone out of their seats and dancing. The energy of the fans was just amazing to see! It was cool to see University of Western marching band and cheerleaders were incorporated into the opening performance. It disappointing that nominees Alessia Cara, The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes weren’t in attendance but Sting surprised us all by making an appearance at the end of the show!

We were seated right in front of 2019 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Corey Hart and his family during the performance. His song “Sunglasses at Night” was the last song of the evening and the entire audience was out of their seats, dancing and donning black sunglasses. To make the experience even sweeter, Amber and I even made it on tv a couple of times! Did you see us?

Warner Music Afterparty

Staying up 5 hours past my “mom” bedtime was well worth every minute to attend the Warner afterparty. Different artists took the stage to play small sets of their own original music and cover songs. I was front row to watch Jim Cuddy play with his sons’. Then he brought a few other famously talented musicians like Brett Kissel, Corey Hart and Ben Kowalewicz from Billy Talent to take lead vocals. What a truly unique experience to watch all of these Canadian musicians play together! It’s no wonder I didn’t go to bed until 4 am! Who would want this night to end? Thank you to the Juno Awards for having me as their Official Influencer this year! I’ll never forget it.