ROCKIN’ THE JUNOS STAGE
Funnyman Peters ready to host
Two giants of Canadian pop culture — comedian Russell Peters and rocker Bryan Adams — are joining forces to host the 46th annual Juno Awards, to be broadcast live from Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.
The dynamic duo is stepping in to replace crooner Michael Bublé, who was scheduled to host the televised festivities but pulled away to focus on the health of his toddler son. Three-year-old Noah is undergoing treatment for liver cancer, diagnosed last fall.
Adams, of course, is no stranger to the Junos, having earned 17 trophies over his lengthy career, plus the 2010 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award and a 2006 induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He doesn’t always go to the show, however, and this will be his first time in a role that involves speaking rather than playing music.
Peters, on the other hand, has never won a Juno Award, although he did pick up a Gemini Award for hosting the Junos from Calgary in 2008, a year that saw the show rack up its second-highest ratings. Organizers liked him so much they brought him back to host the Vancouver edition in 2009, where he poked fun at everyone from Barenaked Ladies to Loverboy.
“Things have changed so much since then,” said the 46-year-old comedian in an interview from Cape Town, South Africa, where he’s spent most of the winter shooting the CraveTV comedy The Indian Detective, set to première this fall. “The last time I did it was the last decade. Nickelback was still relevant back then. Now you want everybody to give you a nickel back.”
A decade ago, Peters’ career was catching fire. The Brampton, Ont.-raised entertainer sold out Toronto’s Air Canada Centre in 2007 and was starting to pack arenas all over the world, earning more than $20 million a year by 2013. On the personal front, he got married, became a father and then went through a divorce.
“I’ve become an adult, and a father,” Peters said. “I was in my 30s the last time we did it, I’m on the other side of 45 now. I’m an oldass man now. I think it will add a maturity, yet I can still be fun and fancy-free.”
Teaming up with Adams, another globe-trotting multimillionaire, is going to be “awesome,” Peters says. “He’s not just a legendary Canadian, he’s a rock icon in real life. I know he likes what I do — he told me himself — so I think we’re going to be just fine. It’s just going to be a love fest up there.”
It’s a boon that Canadian music stars are increasingly popular around the world.
Not so rosy are the prospects for people of colour living in the U.S., where Peters has made his home for years. The Trump administration has him concerned.
“I don’t know what plans he has for the non-whites, but they’re not good,” Peters says. “It’s so much worse than I thought it could have been. In every way. The greater world is laughing at America, literally laughing tears at America. It’s incomprehensible. I never ever thought I’d say, ‘Somebody bring George Bush back.’”
The only silver lining is that it’s a fertile time for comedy.
“We’re in a time now where comedians are necessary. The more everything goes to s---, the more the world needs comedians.”