Alberta musician wins Traditional Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year award at Junos
Congratulations are in order for a Cree musician who brought home some hardware at the 2024 Juno Awards Opening Night Saturday evening.
Joel Wood, from Maskwacis, Alta., was ecstatic to find himself even nominated for Traditional Indigenous music group or artist of the year. Winning his first Juno award was a dream come true for the musician and his community.
“I really feel it's not only representing myself, or my wife or our family, but it's representing our indigenous people as a whole,” said Wood. “Our music is the original music of this land. It was here long before any of the other instruments arrived here, the fiddle of the guitar, the piano – we already had music.”
“It's been here, it's still here. And it's always going to be here.”
The 35-year-old has been performing professionally since he was nine years old with a collective called The Northern Cree. It was during the pandemic where he and his wife, Tonia Jo Hall, performed a show titled Coffee & Stories with Auntie, Sing-Along and Smudge with Uncle over social media.
He credits her for the push towards becoming a solo artist.
“I've never sang in front of people by myself,” said Wood. “She was the one who kind of got there and really opened my eyes for me and said ‘you know, the people want to hear you sing.’”
Wood believes that his prestigious win will pave the way for other Indigenous artists to not only make a name for themselves in the Traditional Music category, but hopefully for the Artist of the Year category.
His message in his music is clear – staying true to your roots, to yourself and being proud of your heritage.
“Represent, be proud of who you are, where you come from and sing those songs,” added Wood. “It's very authentic to be you.”
Wood has also been nominated for nine Grammy awards. Wood’s social media can be found on his website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Not a scarient': New COVID-19 subvariant dominant in Canada
A new COVID-19 subvariant is dominant in Canada, representing just over 30 per cent of cases in the country, but infectious disease experts say there’s no sign it’ll evolve into a summer 'scarient.'
An imbalance of two healthy fats affects your early death risk, study finds
Eating enough healthy fats is great for brain and heart health, but new research has possibly provided even more evidence for adding them, particularly omega-3s, to your diet.
Sun shoots out biggest solar flare in almost 2 decades, but Earth should be out of the way this time
The sun produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades Tuesday, just days after severe solar storms pummelled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places.
Growing wildfires across Western Canada are forcing thousands from their homes
Thousands of people in Western Canada remain displaced from their homes as wildfires threaten their communities, triggering evacuation orders and alerts.
Victim loses $2M in online romance scam
A Malahide Township resident is out more than $2 million following a romance scam.
'Inappropriate' behaviour shuts down Dublin to New York City portal
Less than a week after two public sculptures featuring a livestream between Dublin, Ireland, and New York City debuted, 'inappropriate behaviour' in real-time interactions between people in the two cities has prompted a temporary shutdown.
DEVELOPING Massive manhunt in France for prison-break gang that gunned down officers
A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for an armed gang that killed two prison officers and seriously injured three others to spring an inmate they were escorting.
Federal Tory Leader Poilievre targets illicit drugs in B.C. hospitals
Federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre says the Conservatives will put forward legislation that would forbid Ottawa from "ever" granting provinces exemptions to allow illicit drug use in hospitals.
Life in limbo: Wildfire evacuees struggle through nail-biting wait
More than 2,000 people forced to pack up and leave Fort Nelson, B.C., are trying to adjust to life as evacuees, and the constant concern about what is happening back home.