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. The Weeknd
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.
Alessia Cara 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
4, 2017:
June 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.