The Tragically Hip, Feist, Loverboy songwriters Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and Roch Voisine make up this year’s class of inductees to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The surviving members of the Hip reflected on their induction and the mixed emotions that come with accepting the honour without Gord Downie, the famed frontman and songwriter for the Kingston, Ont., rock band who weaved the group into the country’s national fabric with quintessential Canadian anthems including Bobcaygeon and Ahead by a Century. 

Remembering Gord Downie

“We’re excited to be entering the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and joining previous inductees, as well as this year’s, whose songs we greatly admire,” the surviving members of the Hip said in a press release ahead of the Sept. 26 induction ceremony at Toronto’s Massey Hall. “It is humbling to be in their company; although it is bittersweet that our bandmate, lyricist and dear friend, Gord Downie, will not be standing with us.”

“It is fitting that he be honoured in this way,” the band added. “He is well loved and missed by us all, every day.”

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Nick Fedor, executive director of the Hall, said that this year’s class represent a body of work that “has shaped our culture and defined how Canadian music is heard at home and around the world.”

“These are writers whose songs have endured, travelled and become part of the country’s shared experience. They did not follow a template; they defined one,” he added.

Past inductees include legendary artists Bryan Adams, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette and more.

Feist, 50, the Grammy-nominated hitmaker behind 2007 ear-worm 1234, reacted to her induction with an eloquent reflection on her creative process.

“Writing songs is a way to locate myself in my own private speed of time. I’ve grown increasingly grateful for this ongoing conversation, mostly made of listening and attuning and preparing,” said the Amherst, N.S. native. “I feel like a beginner every time I begin again, and am surprised and grateful for this recognition,” she said.

Loverboy’s Reno, 71, and Dean, 80, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the Calgary-based rock band who penned hits like Working for the Weekend, Turn Me Loose and Heaven in Your Eyes, said they “set out to write songs that made people feel something right away, that energy, that release, that connection.

“To have that songwriting recognized all these years later, and to know the songs are still out there doing their job, means everything to us.”

Voisine, 63, the chart-topping Québécois balladeer best known for Hélène, Always Be There and other pop hits, said he was honoured to be inducted alongside his heroes.

“I have always considered myself as a songwriter first,” he said. “But I was very fortunate that the public gave me the chance to sing my songs.”

Tickets to the ceremony will be made available for purchase on April 29 through Massey Hall and the event will also be streamed live on the Amazon Music channel and Prime Video.