MUSIC HISTORY 150
Music is arguably Canada’s most beloved art form and one of our biggest cultural exports. To mark our 150th birthday, we offer a mix of 150 historical moments. (Part 3 of 3)
101 March 9, 1997:
Sloan (Halifax) wins its only Juno: best alternative album (One Chord to Another).
102 July 15, 1997:
Vancouver resident Sarah McLachlan releases her most successful album, Surfacing, coinciding with the start of her all-female Lilith Fair tour.
103 Nov. 4, 1997:
Come On Over released by Timmins, Ont.-raised Shania Twain: The bestselling country album, studio album by a woman and album by a Canadian of all time.
104 March 22, 1998:
Winning best rap recording Juno for Cash Crop, Rascalz (Vancouver) refuse the award because it wasn’t presented during the TV broadcast. The rap category is moved to the main ceremony the next year.
105 1998:
Rap song Northern Touch — from Vancouver’s Rascalz and Checkmate and Toronto’s Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair — reaches No. 41 on the top singles chart. It’s the first homegrown urban song to crack our top 100.
106 Oct. 17, 1998:
One Week by Barenaked Ladies (Scarborough, Ont.) spends its one week at the top of the Billboard chart.
107 Feb. 24, 1999:
Celine Dion is the first Canadian to win the recordof-the-year Grammy for My Heart Will Go On; it also won an Oscar for its use in Titanic, among many other accolades.
108 July 22, 1999:
Len (Toronto) releases Steal My Sunshine, a surprise worldwide hit.
109 Dec. 20, 1999:
Hank Snow, 85, dies of heart failure.
110 Feb. 23, 2000:
Nanaimo, B.C.’s Diana Krall wins the Grammy for best jazz vocal album (When I Look in Your Eyes).
111 April 22, 2001:
Sum 41 (Ajax, Ont.) releases its defining single Fat Lip, which goes on to top the Billboard modern rock chart.
112 Aug. 21, 2001:
The most played song in the U.S. in the 2000s is released: How You Remind Me by Nickelback (Hanna, Alta.).
113 Feb. 27, 2002:
Victoria native Nelly Furtado wins a Grammy for best female pop vocal for her debut single, I’m Like a Bird. She’s the last Canadian to win in that category.
114 Aug. 3, 2002:
Complicated, lead single from Napanee, Ont.raised Avril Lavigne’s debut album Let Go, reaches No. 2 on Billboard.
115 May 18, 2003:
The Trailer Park Boys episode called Closer To The Heart features a guest appearance by Rush’s Alex Lifeson.
116 June 1, 2003:
Canadian Idol debuts. Over its run making winners of the likes of Ryan Malcolm and Kalan Porter. The show lasts six seasons. Jacob Hoggard, later of Hedley fame, was a 2004 finalist.
117 July 30, 2003:
An estimated 475,000 attend the SARS benefit concert in Toronto, featuring Justin Timberlake, The Guess Who, Rush, AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, among others.
118 June 12, 2004:
Terri Clark, raised in Medicine Hat, Alta., officially made a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She’s the only current female Canadian Opry member.
119 July 27, 2004:
k.d. lang’s paean to her fellow Canuck songwriters, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, hits stores.
120 Sept. 18, 2006:
Inaugural Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album goes to He Poos Clouds by Final Fantasy (a.k.a. Owen Pallett, Mississauga, Ont.).
121 Sept. 24, 2007:
The Big Bang Theory debuts, with the theme song by Barenaked Ladies.
122 Dec. 23, 2007:
Oscar Peterson, 82, dies of kidney failure in Mississauga, Ont.
123 Feb. 10, 2008:
Stratford, Ont.-raised Justin Bieber appears on YouTube, singing Chris Brown’s With You. His discovery awaits.
124 April 6, 2008:
Feist goes 5-for-5 at the Junos. The Amherst, N.S., native’s wins include album (The Reminder), single (1234) and artist of the year.
125 April 7, 2009:
Classified (Enfield, N.S.) drops Self Explanatory, which contains his hip-hop tribute Oh … Canada.
126 July 10, 2009:
Rufus Wainwright (Montreal) premières his opera Prima Donna at the Manchester International Festival.
127 Oct. 9, 2009:
Burnaby, B.C.’s Michael Bublé performs his new single, Haven’t Met You Yet, on Oprah.
128 Nov. 22, 2009:
Non-smoking Hamilton native Haydain Neale, 39, a.k.a. Jacksoul, dies of lung cancer.
129 Jan. 22, 2010:
Musicians rally for the Canada for Haiti telethon, broadcast nationally on three networks.
130 Feb. 27, 2010:
I Believe by Nikki Yanofsky (Montreal) tops the Canadian Hot 100 chart. It will be used to promote two Olympic Games.
131 Feb. 28, 2010:
Murrayville, B.C., tenor Ben Heppner performs at the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics, his second straight performance at a Winter Games.
132 June 30, 2010:
Queen Elizabeth II unveils a life-size bronze statue of Peterson outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
133 Feb. 13, 2011:
Montreal’s Arcade Fire becomes the first indie act to win a Grammy for album of the year (The Suburbs).
134 March 27, 2011:
“What year is this?” Neil Young, then 65, asks when he’s awarded his first artist-ofthe-year Juno.
135 Sept. 20, 2011:
Carly Rae Jepsen (Mission, B.C.), releases Call Me Maybe, the worldwide bestselling single in 2012.
136 Nov. 29, 2011:
YOLO — Drake popularizes the acronym in lyrics to his single, The Motto.
137 Aug. 14, 2013:
Forbes names Niagara Falls, Ont.’ s deadmau5 as the No. 5 highest-paid DJ in the world that year, with $21 million in earnings.
138 March 30, 2014:
Ottawa’s aboriginal electronic group A Tribe Called Red wins breakthrough groupof-the-year Juno for its album, Nation II Nation.
139 July 12, 2014:
Pickering, Ont.’ s Shawn Mendes’s first single Life of the Party peaks at No. 24 on Billboard, making the 15-year-old the youngest to crack the top 25.
140 Feb. 22, 2015:
Tegan and Sara perform their Oscar-nominated theme from The Lego Movie, Everything Is Awesome, at the Academy Awards.
141 June 8, 2015:
The Weeknd (Toronto) releases Can’t Feel My Face, voted best song of 2015 in Rolling Stone.
142 July 29, 2015:
Alessia Cara (Brampton, Ont.) makes her TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing her single Here.
143 Nov. 13, 2015:
Bieber’s Purpose is his sixth album to debut at No. 1.
144 May 24, 2016:
Doctors announce Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie (Amherstview, Ont.) has terminal brain cancer.
145 Aug. 20, 2016:
The final concert on The Hip’s farewell tour is in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ont., and broadcast on CBC.
146 Oct. 18, 2016:
Downie’s album Secret Path, about an Anishinaabe boy who died tragically, is available. The Juno-winning multimedia package includes a graphic novel and animated TV film.
147 Nov. 7, 2016:
Leonard Cohen, 82, dies weeks after the release of his final album (You Want It Darker).
148 May 30, 2017:
It’s announced that Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill will be turned into a musical, debuting in Cambridge, Mass., in May 2018.
149 June 4, 2017:
Bieber performs with just his acoustic guitar at the One Love Manchester concert.
150 July 1, 2017:
Concerts and events will be held across the country in celebration of our 150th birthday.