Great piece Shad wrote for The Vancouver Sun newspaper, or…ended up there, or…doesn’t really matter cuz it’s on the web. Anyways, doubt this will ever happen at the Junos or any other major award show for that matter (shouts to people that aren’t forward thinking!) but I have seen an event or two that do celebrate local heroes while still incorporating music. Def agree that something on the same scale as the Junos would def be amazing though. That high school idea should get implemented ASAP too!

Oh yea, and Shad will be performing at Metro Square tonight as part of the week’s Juno festivities. Free concert. Chyea.

A PROPOSAL FOR NEXT YEAR’s JUNO AWARDS

by Shadrach Kabango

So the Juno Awards are this weekend. I’ve been honoured with a nomination and I’ll also be presenting an award on the TV this time around. In light of these good times ahead, what I’d like to say may amount to sort of chipping at the branch I’m sitting on – but that’s alright.

I should start by saying that awards shows are fun; you get free food and sometimes free shoes. Secondly, I’d like to add that when I got my first Juno nod in 2008, it helped my career a great deal. And on top of all that, when you’re a struggling musician eating cheap pizza and sleeping on people’s floors three days a week, a little recognition can be a nice consolation. Fortunately at this point though, I only eat cheap pizza 1 or 2 times a week, and I’m privileged to get to purchase this pizza via work that I not only enjoy but also find some real purpose in. Moreover, every time I do my job – for example, play a show – a few hundred people clap and scream for me. Every three minutes. And I’m not even famous. So given all that, I can’t help but think that maybe we musicians can do without the hardware.

I remember one time in grade 7 or 8, my teacher remarked to my class that every day on the morning announcements we hear about how our school teams did and who the star players were, but they never announce that, say, so and so got a 98 on their chemistry exam. Or student x wrote a particularly well-argued paper on something important. It doesn’t make sense, he said. This is a school.

Maybe you can see where I’m going with this analogy. And I know I’m not the first person to make this point, but just like the morning announcements at my junior. high school didn’t do much to promote education, in a world with a bunch of pressing concerns, musicians might attend three or four nationally broadcasted award shows in one year, while nurses and social workers who provide critical care might go to a work party at Christmas.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE