Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

The Walt Grealis Award The last Hurrah for Denise Jones at the Juno Awards In May By Stephen Weir : She was the cornerstone of the Jamaican Canadian community and is about to receive her just rewards at a special ceremony in Toronto in May. The national Juno Music Award will be posthumously honouring the late Denise Jones with the 2022 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award. The Award will be broadcast live on CBC/Gem Television, streamed on cbc.ca/juno and on Ontario Place’s Budweiser Stage. It showcases the Juno Opening Night ceremonies this May14th. The Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award recognizes individuals whose work has significantly impacted the growth and development of the Canadian music industry. Named after the publisher and co-founder of the JUNO Awards, the Award kicks off the 6-day festival. Denise Jones  was  one of the most influential voices in Canada’s Black entertainment community  for the past 30-years . Jones, who passed in December 2020  o...

Caribbean stars win big at JUNOs By Stephen Weir A long anticipated and much delayed award ceremony took place on line over the past week. The JUNOS, which honour Canada’s best recording artists, were originally scheduled to be given out on stage in Saskatoon in mid-March but were cancelled because of the Virus lockdown.  On Monday evening the 42 JUNO Awards were presented online. The big winners were  singer-songwriter Alessia Cara (3 awards) and Sean Mendes (Single of the Year Award). For the second year in a row, nine-time JUNO Award winner Avril Lavigne won for JUNO Fan Choice Three Caribbean Canadian performers from the GTA were nominated for Junos in the categories of Reggae, R&B /Soul Recording and Rap. Brampton’s Daystar Peterson (aka Tory Lanez) Tory Lanez maintained his reign of the Rap Recording of the Year category, marking his third consecutive win, as well as being the first artist to win in both the Rap Recording and R...

Reyez on the money with the world's best. Raise a Guinness to their records - by sweirsweir At a time when everything cultural is now only available via smart phones and computers, it is hard for a singer to get noticed when performing online, unless of course you are talking about Jessie Reyez. In late April she teamed up with Oprah, Michelle Obama, Elton John, Celine Dion and Michael Bublé to perform to the world and set a couple of Guinness records in the process. Jimmy Fallon and friends It was an online music festival called One World: Together at Home and some of the world’s biggest names virtually came together to raise money in aid of COVID-19 relief. The history making digital festival was co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Global Citizen. Earlier this week Guinness World Records contacted me to say that the global broadcast and digital event achieved two Guinness World Records titles. The online event set a record for most musical acts to perfor...