Pop-star Tate McRae took home the most hardware at this year’s Juno Awards on Sunday night, but it was a fabulous display of intergenerational love that stole the show at the award ceremony often dubbed “Canada’s Grammys.”
From a Joni Mitchell love-fest led by Canada’s prime minister, to a performance by Rush, to Drake shelving his long feud with the awards body to celebrate Nelly Furtado, we revisit five of our favourite highlights from the night.
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1. Carney Loves Joni
In remarks peppered with references to Joni Mitchell’s most enduring hits, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, 61, presented the folk legend with the Lifetime Achievement Award, reminding Canadians just how ingrained she is in our national fabric.
“The songs of this prairie girl brought to light the beauty in everyday Canadiana: geese in chevron flight, a little money riding on the Maple Leafs, a river to skate away on,” he said, between rousing cheers from the audience. “Through 19 studio albums, a career spanning more than six decades, Joni drew a map of Canada. Oh Canada! Joni’s music didn’t just provide the soundtrack to our lives – she shifted culture, inspired generations and redefined what songwriting could be.”
Speaking on his favourite Joni song, Both Sides Now, Carney reflected on how the meaning of the lyrics evolved as she aged – and the lesson we can all take from the enduring classic.
“By 2000, when she revisited the song, that wistful levity of youth had been replaced by the raw vulnerability of a woman who has lived,” he said. “The same words brilliantly imagined by the artist to reveal the song’s enduring truth that ‘something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.’”
2. Joni’s Curtain Call
Taking to the podium to a roaring standing ovation, Mitchell –an under-appreciated fashion icon in her own right – let her outfit do the talking.
“I wore this dress because it says in Chinese: Happy, happy, happy, happy,” the 82-year-old music icon said, pointing to each of the green characters on her black velvet dress. “So I’m happy, happy, happy to be here.”
While she lost her train of thought several times – silences quickly filled with cheers of encouragement and fans shouting “I love you, Joni” – her speech embodied the optimistic spirit highlighted in Carney’s remarks.
“Some years ago, I had an aneurysm, which changed my life, oddly, for the better,” she said, referencing the brain aneurysm that left her unable to walk and speak in 2015. “I went into a coma, which helped me to quit smoking. And my house filled up with the most wonderful nurses. I was on the road with men for years and years. Now I live with a house full of women … so my life has changed for the better, out of a catastrophe, like a phoenix.”
Mitchell later joined a musical tribute to her oeuvre with several Canadian artists, including Sarah McLachlan, Allison Russell, Jully Black, The Beaches and Alessia Cara.
In the spirit of her patented Joni Jams, she joined a sing-along of her 1970 hit Big Yellow Taxi – forgoing the throne-like chair that has become standard in her later-life performances and standing for the duration.
3. A Real Rush
Emotions ran high early Sunday night as legendary rock band Rush delivered a surprise opening performance – the group’s first in over a decade and a poignant return without legendary drummer Neil Peart, who died in 2020.
“You know, music lives beyond tragedy, beyond anything that can happen in your life,” frontman Geddy Lee, 72, told reporters after taking to the stage to perform Finding My Way from their debut 1974 album.
The band also debuted their new drummer, Anika Nilles, a German musician who rose to prominence on YouTube in the 2010s and will join them on their upcoming world tour.
“I think [Neil] would be very pleased with our choice of drummer, and I think he would have a bit of a smirk on his face. A thumbs up, I hope,” Lee said. “We’ve been rehearsing with her on and off for about a year now, and now it’s very comfortable. She’s expressing her personality, which is nice to see. A fantastic person, lovely, easy to work with … we consider ourselves so fortunate because she was really the only drummer we tried to work with and she’s just been perfect for us. And she fires us up. She’s a bonus.”
4. An Award-Winning Reunion
Daniel Caesar accepted a Juno for contemporary R&B recording of the year for his 2025 album, Son of Spergy, with his arm around his father, Jamaican gospel singer and preacher Norwill Simmonds. The endearing acceptance speech marked a full-circle moment for the singer who spent years estranged from his father. The now Juno Award-winning album reflects on their strained relationship and recent reconciliation.
“I just want to say thank you to my dad – this is Spergy right here,” Caesar said, referencing the name of the album, before asking if he’d like to say anything. “Oh I just love you all, thank you Junos,” Simmonds added, clutching his son’s gold statuette.
5. Drake Gets Sweet and Salty
The Toronto rapper packed as much love as he could into his two-page tribute to Nelly Furtado, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on the night.
“You are our North Star, the proof that it was possible,” Drake, 39, said, appearing virtually from his studio and bringing Furtado, 47, to tears. “The Portuguese princess who could go from spitting sixteens with Swollen Members to dropping Maneater and Promiscuous with Timbaland – there were no ceilings, no walls, no boundaries.”
Virtual or not, Drake’s appearance signalled a step toward ending his long-running boycott of the Junos – a beef that began in 2011 when he was infamously snubbed despite being the most-nominated artist – and hosting the ceremony. Still, he managed to slip in one last jab before signing off.
