Songwriters Randy Bachman, Dallas Green, Magic!, The Weeknd, “Born To Be Wild” songwriter Mars Bonfire and manager/record exec Bernie Finkelstein were among the honorees at the 2015 SOCAN Awards last night at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle.
The special achievement award is actually the first trophy for music that actually makes music. It’s its own percussive instrument. The non-special achievement award is a medal and a plaque to display the medal.
The theme of the night was “Born To Be,” which included video clips of members of the music industry talking about why they were destined for this business — the night ended with an all-star jam of “Takin’ Care of Business,” led by Bachman, with the black-tie audience of 600 joining in on SOCAN-stickered cowbells.
The SOCAN Awards, now in its 26th year, recognizes Canada’s music creators in a range of categories, including dance, urban, pop/rock, country, jazz, folk/roots, classical, and film & television, in addition to the major special achievement awards. SOCAN — Canada’s performing rights organization — has 130,000 members, “collecting our highest revenue ever and distributing it with our lowest expense ratio ever,” said SOCAN president Stan Meissner.
Performances included metal veterans Anvil on Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild,” up-and-coming singer-guitarist Francesco Yates on his “Better To Be Loved,” and Cold Specks on Canadian Warren Pash’s co-write “Private Eyes,” the Hall & Oates hit.
Dallas Green, of City and Colour, was moved to tears by his National Achievement Award, which included props via video from his former Alexisonfire bandmates, Tegan and Sara, and recent You and Me collaborator Pink.
Magic! received the International Achievement Award. The reggae-pop group had enormous success with No. 1 hit “Rude” and more radio hits, such as “Don’t Kill The Magic,” “Let Your Hair Down,” and “No Way No” and just got off tour with Maroon 5.
Bernie Finkelstein earned the Special Achievement Award, which is presented to people who have greatly contributed to Canada’s music industry and/or musical heritage over the span of their careers. He formed True North Records back in 1969, which released more than 550 albums and earned 37 gold and platinum awards. He also managed various artists, including Bruce Cockburn with whom he still works.
“Born To Be Wild” songwriter Mars Bonfire accepted SOCAN’s first-ever Cultural Impact Award, which goes to a song that has had a significant lasting impact on society in Canada and/or around the world. A cool tidbit — Toronto station Q107 has played “Born To Be Wild” every day since it went to air in 1977. Bonfire, said SOCAN’s Rodney Murphy, had been impossible to reach for years because the former Steppenwolf guitarist’s true “wild” passion is hiking and climbing mountains. He is a member of the Sierra Club 100 Peaks List — but has reached the peaks of various mountains almost 7000 times.
Most-performed foreign song went to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” for achieving the greatest number of performances on domestic radio in 2014. The folk/roots music award was given to the Strumbellas whose repertoire achieved the highest number of performances on domestic radio, pay audio and concerts in 2014. The Dance Music Award went to both Glenn Morrison’s “Goodbye” and Kiesza’s “Hideaway” and the Urban Music Award to Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Ahmed “Belly” Balshe and Jason “Daheala” Quenneville for The Weeknd’s “Wanderlust” for the greatest number of performances on domestic radio in 2014 in their respective categories.
2015 SOCAN Classic Awards winners, for achieving over 100,000 spins (performances) on domestic radio, was given to Warren Pash for his co-write “Private Eyes;” Rich Dodson for “Monday Morning” and “Wild Eyes” performed by The Stampeders; Ray Coburn for “Feel It Again,”performed by Honeymoon Suite; and Derry Grehan for “Burning in Love,” “New Girl Now,” “Wave Babies” and “What Does It Take,” also performed by Honeymoon Suite.
Randy Bachman, of Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive received the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has given the world such hits as “Takin’ Care of Business,” “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” “American Woman,” “These Eyes” and “No Sugar Tonight.” He has had countless No.1 hits globally and has sold in excess of 40 million albums. He is also in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
See the full list of winners and songwriting breakdowns below.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Randy Bachman
INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
MAGIC!
NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dallas Green
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Bernie Finkelstein
CUTURAL IMPACT AWARD
Mars Bonfire
Universal Music Publishing Canada
DANCE MUSIC AWARDS
“Goodbye”
Performed by Glenn Morrison/Islove
Jeremy Francis (Islove)
Glenn Morrison
Matthew Lange (BMI)
Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada
“Hideaway”
Performed by Kiesza
Kiesza
Rami Samir Afuni (BMI)
Elephant Eye Publishing
EMI Blackwood Music Canada Ltd.
POP/ROCK MUSIC AWARDS
“Rude”
Performed by MAGIC!
Nasri Atweh
Adam Messinger
Mark Pellizzer
Ben Spivak
Alex Tanas
BMG Rights Management Canada
Kobalt Music Group
Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada
Universal Music Publishing Canada
COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS
“3-2-1”
Performed by Brett Kissel
Brett Kissel
Marvin Green (BMI)
Tim Nichols (BMI)
Bouncy Bear Music
O’Reilly International Inc.
“Got a Feeling”
Performed by Tim Hicks
Jeff Coplan
Tim Hicks
Noll Billings (BMI)
ole
Roots 3 Music Inc.
“Friends of Mine”
Performed by Jason Blaine
Jason Blaine
Philip O’Donnell (BMI)
URBAN MUSIC AWARDS
“Higher”
Performed by Classified
Classified (a.k.a. Luke Boyd)
William Lobban Bean (BMI)
Gary Jackson (BMI)
Renard Miner (BMI)
Bobby Simmons (BMI)
Carl Smith (BMI)
“Wanderlust”
Performed by The Weeknd
Belly (a.k.a. Ahmad Balshe)
Da Heala (a.k.a.) Jason Quenneville
The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye)
Sylhouette Musmin (BUMA)
Danny Schofield (ASCAP)
Joseph Bostani (ASCAP)
Albert Tamaela (BUMA)
CP Music Group Inc.
SONGS Music Publishing
Universal Music Publishing Canada
Warner Chappell Music Canada Ltd.
“Crazy for You”
Performed by Hedley
Jacob Hoggard
Brian Howes
Jason Van Poederooyen
8 Pack of Lucky
EMI Blackwood Music Canada Ltd.
Universal Music Publishing Canada
“Heaven in Our Headlights”
Performed by Hedley
Jacob Hoggard
Brian Howes
Nolan Winfield (ASCAP)
EMI Blackwood Music Canada Ltd.
Universal Music Publishing Canada
“We Are Stars”
Performed by Virginia to Vegas feat. Alyssa Reid
Jamie Appleby
Derik Baker (Virginia to Vegas)
Nathan Ferraro
Kevin Figs
Teddy Pena
Alyssa Reid
Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada
Third Side Music Inc.
Wax On Wax Off Publishing
“Chills”
Performed by Down With Webster
Tyler Armes
Boi 1da
Emerson Brooks
Zale Epstein
Patrick Gillett
Cam Hunter
Brett Ryan Kruger
Andrew Martino
Alyssa Veniece Chin
Smashterpiece
Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada
Warner Chappell Music Canada Ltd.
DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARD – FICTION
Murdoch Mysteries
Robert Carli
Shaftesbury
Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada
DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARD – NON-FICTION
Dragons’ Den
Andrew Cash
Josh Finlayson
Elmarush Songs
DOMESTIC TV MUSIC AWARD – ANIMATED
Johnny Test
Ian LeFeuvre
Ari Posner
Chris Tait
Cjar Music Publishing
ole
ACHIEVEMENT IN MADE-FOR-TV FILM MUSIC
The Riverbank
James Mark Stewart
ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM MUSIC
The Expatriate
Jeff Danna
CEG Rights Canada
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM MUSIC AWARD
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Andrew Lockington
INTERNATIONAL TV SERIES MUSIC AWARD
Hawai Five-O
Keith Power
2015 SOCAN CLASSIC MUSIC AWARDS
“Burning in Love”
“New Girl Now”
“Wave Babies”
“What Does it Take?”
Performed by Honeymoon Suite
Derry Grehan
Don Valley Music Ltd.
peer International (Canada)
“Feel It Again”
Performed by Honeymoon Suite
Ray Coburn
Don Valley Music Ltd.
peer International (Canada)
“Private Eyes”
Performed by Hall & Oates
Warren Pash
Janna Allen (BMI)
Sara Allen (BMI)
Daryl Hall (BMI)
Almo Music of Canada
“Monday Morning”
“Wild Eyes”
Performed by The Stampeders
Rich Dodson
Open Wagon Music
Southern Music Publishing Company Canada Ltd.
INTERNATIONAL SONG AWARD
“Dark Horse”
Performed by Katy Perry
Henry “Cirkut” Russell
Lukasz Gottwald (ASCAP)
Jordan Houston (BMI)
Katheryn Hudson (ASCAP)
Sarah Hudson (ASCAP)
Martin Sandberg (STIM)
BMG Rights Management Canada
Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. Canada
MOST-PERFORMED FOREIGN SONG AWARD
“Happy”
Performed by Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams
FOLK / ROOTS MUSIC AWARD
The Strumbellas
2015 SOCAN LICENSED TO PLAY AWARD
The Calgary Stampede
2015 SOCAN BREAKOUT AWARD
DVVBS
Shawn Mendes
HAGOOD HARDY AWARD
Kirk MacDonald
JAN V. MATEJCEK NEW CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARD
Vivian Fung