Drake tops the list of nominees for the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Juno Awards, March 27, at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, it was announced this morning at a press conference at the Royal York Hotel.
The Toronto-born rapper received six nominations, including album of the year, Juno fan choice, artist of the year; songwriter of the year, rap recording of the year and single of the Year for his club hit “Find Your Love.”
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Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Broken Social Scene, Hedley, Johnny Reid, and Sarah McLachlan each received multiple nominations as well.
Arcade Fire, which will perform at the televised ceremony on CTV, is up for four — group, songwriter and alternative album and Jack Richardson producer. The art directors for the album, “The Suburbs,” also received a nod for recording package.
Receiving four nominations a piece are Broken Social Scene for group, alternative album, video and music DVD; Hedley for fan choice, single, album, and video; Johnny Reid for Juno fan choice, album, artist and country album; and Bieber for fan choice; album, artist and pop album.
McLachlan is nominated for three awards this year in the artist, songwriter and pop album categories.
2010 Polaris Music Prize winners, Karkwa, received nominations for alternative album and francophone album.
For this year’s awards, a new electronic album of the year category has also been introduced. The inaugural nominees are Caribou (for his album “Swim”), Chilly Gonzales (“Ivory Towers”), Crystal Castles (“II”), Holy Fuck (“Latin”) and Poirier (“Running High”).
There are 82 first-time JUNO Awards nominees for these ruby award. Among them, Basia Bulat, Bobby Bazini, Caribou, Hannah Georgas and Meaghan Smith share the new artist category, while Die Mannequin, Hollerado, Misteur Valaire, My Darkest Days and Said The Whale are up for new group.
Neil Young, the 2011 recipient of the Allan Waters humanitarian award, is nominated for artist and adult alternative album. He will appear at the awards for the first time in 29 years.
The first round of performers were also announced, including Arcade Fire, Down with Webster, Broken Social Scene and Johnny Reid, with more to be announced.
Click here to view a complete list of 2011 JUNO Award nominees.