Two Canadian artists bring home Grammy awards

Mar 15 2021, 3:54 pm

Justin Bieber and Montreal DJ KAYTRANADA were among the Canadian talents recognized at Sunday’s 63rd Grammy Award ceremony.

Due to COVID-19, the ceremony was much smaller than in previous years. It was held outdoors with its traditional Los Angeles Staples Center venue as a backdrop in order to accommodate for greater physical distance and the use of multiple stages that minimized contact between artists.

In a very pandemic-fashion, the absence of a big audience during the event left somewhat of an awkward silence between the announcements of the winners of each category and their Zoom appearance on screen for their thank-you speeches.

KAYTRANADA, who recently premiered his new song “Caution” on TikTok, took home the first Grammy awards of his career. His second studio album, BUBBA, won for the category “Best Dance/Electronic Album,” and his song “10%” with American-Colombian singer Kali Uchis was awarded the year’s “Best Dance Recording.”

“This is insane,” the artist said in his acceptance speech. “I’m taking this one back to Montreal.

On his end, Justin Bieber won for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” for his song “10,000 Hours” with country duo Dan + Shay.

Bieber had previously expressed disappointment about the three nominations from his album ChangesĀ being set in the pop music category. The young singer had produced it with an R&B sound in mind.

Other Canadian artists whose talent was recognized at this year’s Grammys included Torontonian guitarist Jim ā€œKimoā€ West, whose album More Guitar StoriesĀ was awarded “Best New Age Album.” Albertan music engineer Shawn Everett’s work on Beck’s HyperspaceĀ won “Best Engineered Album” in the non-classical music category ā€” although this Canadian musician had been nominated in two more songs from this same category.

Despite these huge wins for the Canadian music industry, some watched the event unfold bitterly after The Weeknd, whose record-breaking single “Blinding Lights” recently became the “first song to spend a year in the Hot 100’s top 10,” was completely left out of any nominations.

Originally expected to perform at this year’s Grammys, the Toronto native was vocal about his discontent when nominations for the ceremony were announced in November 2020. In a statement, he announced he would be boycotting the event and, in the future, would “no longer allow [his] label to submit [his] music to the Grammys.ā€

Elyette LevyElyette Levy

+ News
+ Arts
ADVERTISEMENT