Why Tate McRae, Justin Bieber and the Weeknd Don’t Care About the Juno Awards

At the industry’s Juno Awards ceremony at the Hamilton Convention Center on Saturday, there were no “hands off” or “Canada down.” Instead, things took a turn for the worse at an event where most of the awards were handed out before Sunday’s nationally televised ceremony at the TD Coliseum.

Calgary singer-turned-musician Tate McRae reigned supreme, winning four major awards, including artist of the year. When he defeated heavyweights Justin Bieber and the Weeknd, his victory was a statement. Unfortunately, the sentence was this: “We accept Juno for her sake.”

He’s not just a 22-year-old Sports Car the singer did not show up to collect his equipment, but he failed to deliver a pre-arranged video or a statement accepting the achievement. Should the Canadian music industry be upset? Not really.

Because McRae, an international actor who first attracted attention as a character in an American reality television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2016, it’s not really part of the Canadian music industry. He came up with music in the context of YouTube (which knows no borders) and signed to the US label, RCA Records.

Tate McRae leads the Junos with four major awards, despite not attending the ceremony

McRae did not attend the 2025 Junos in Vancouver, where he has won four times. She performed at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards in New York, where she rocked, flipped her hair and sang on the beach. This weekend he kicks sand in the face of Junos.

McRae won Sunday’s fans’ choice award, as did Bieber and the Weeknd. None of them are expected to attend the ceremony. Like McRae, they are not products of the domestic music industry – in most cases, they have been working on an international level.

Therefore, Juno juice is not suitable for pressing. None of the Big Three would make the trip to Hamilton when losing the others was a distinct possibility. Losing a Grammy nomination is one thing; losing face at the Junos is another.

Who can forget the 2011 Junos in Toronto? Drake can’t, that’s for sure. Hometown, hip hop icon 6ix hosted that year but failed to turn his half dozen nominations into awards. Since then, he has refused the program; his last election was in 2017.

What to watch at the 2026 Juno Awards

In 2011, Neil Young, who lives in the US, was invited to the north to receive an award for charity. What surprised him was that he also won the best singer of the year award.

“It’s totally unbelievable that I’m here,” he said, accepting the picture. “But it’s a great honor. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much. You’re in Canada!”

That same night, 17-year-old Bieber won the first two Juno Awards of his career. Because the youth icon from Stratford, Ont., was overseas, he thanked the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with a video message.

He said: “I want to thank everyone for believing in me. “Above all, I want to thank my mother for raising me in Canada…”

McRae’s no-show this year should be considered a surprise, given the Juno love she received last year and considering the controversy caused when she promoted the US Olympic team for an NBC ad last month. He took to social media to defend himself, writing, “You know I’m Canadian.”

However?

On Sunday, another Alberta icon who made her career south of the border, Joni Mitchell, will be in Hamilton to accept a Junos lifetime achievement award. In his 1971 song Your Matterhe sang, “Behind the cartoon, in the TV-radio light, I drew a map of Canada − oh, Canada.”

One wonders what happened to that map. One can use the roads.