Mission's own intergalactic pop superstar, Carly Rae Jepsen, performed a free Christmas concert in her hometown at the Clarke Theatre on Dec. 17. She leads the Juno charge with five nominations, while Abbotsford pop-rock band Hedley has three.
Photograph by: File photo , Abbotsford Times
The Junos made the call and Carly Rae Jepsen certainly answered - but so did the rest of the 604 music scene.
With the Mission-bred Call Me Maybe star landing five nominations for this year's Juno Awards - including artist, album, single and pop album of the year, as well as a Juno fan choice award nod - 2013 was a big year for Chad Kroeger and Jonathan Simkin's 604 label, whose roster also includes pop-rock group Marianas Trench, in the running for three awards, and Langley's Dallas Smith, who is competing in the country album category.
To put things in perspective, Justin Bieber is the only other act to land four nominations or more this year, finding himself in direct competition with Jepsen, the pop star he helped prop up. Other triple nominees include Billy Talent, Metric and The Sheepdogs, as well as Abbotsford-bred pop-rock favourites Hedley.
Looking at the nominations list, 2013 has been a big year not just for 604 (the label) but for Vancouver, and B.C. as a whole. With nominees in almost every category, from pop to jazz to classical and metal, the Junos are arguably B.C.'s to own this year. (What's more, Burnaby's 11-time Juno winner Michael BublŽ is hosting the proceedings in April in Regina, which is a nice Vancouver-related bonus.)
Marianas Trench frontman Josh Ramsay, who co-wrote and co-produced Call Me Maybe (which in turn helped land him a nomination for the Jack Richardson award for producer of the year), agreed that 2013 was a special year when it comes to the Lower Mainland's Juno presence.
"I feel like now people are actually looking to Vancouver to see what's coming up next. There's a lot of talented people here."
- The Juno Awards will be broadcast on CTV on April 21.
