While Tate McRae was the big winner at the 2025 JUNO Awards, collecting the prizes for Artist, Single, Album and Pop Album of the Year, it was Lowell who won the first-ever Songwriter of the Year, Non-Performer JUNO Award, presented by SOCAN.
“I’ve been here [at the JUNOs], like, eight or nine times,” said Lowell in her acceptance speech, “and watched a lot of hits that I wrote get JUNOs, but not moi. So thank you. I want to thank [SOCAN CEO] Jennifer Brown and Alan Reed [of CARAS] for making this category happen.”
Mustafa earned the honour for Songwriter of the Year, sponsored by SOCAN, while Deantha Edmunds won the Classical Composition of the Year Award for Angmalukisaa. AP Dhillon’s The Brownprint earned the first-ever South Asian Music Recording of the Year JUNO; Klô Pelgag’s Abracadabra took home the trophy for Francophone Album of the Year; and Sebastian Gaskin won the prize for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.
SOCAN spent the nights of March 29 and 30, 2025, in the media room of the JUNO Awards Galas, where most of the winners come after they win, to reply to questions from a plethora of Canadian music journalists. With Canadian culture on everyone’s minds, in the face of potential and actual U.S. trade tariffs, here’s what some of them said…
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- Boi-1da: “I came from a time when Canadians weren’t recognized for anything. It was hard to fathom breaking out of Canada. Drake and 40 were able to pioneer a sound that was very recognizable… and we were able to break out of Canada, and it was a beautiful thing.”
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- Snotty Nose Rez Kids: “Living in a colonized world, it’s forever evolving, and we have to evolve with it. For us to reclaim spaces, and make an imprint, I think it’s really important for the generation coming after us to know what they’re capable of.”
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- Klô Pelgag: “For me, this award is like existing elsewhere than home. It’s always been my goal to make my music travel, and I am always really happy to see how it’s received abroad, in non-Francophone countries. I think that music can transcend language; you don’t need to understand what’s being said to feel it. That’s what’s important for me: to share it.”
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- Jessie Reyez: “It’s a gift to have been born in this country, having parents that are from somewhere else. I think if I had been South of the border, I don’t think I would’ve been as in touch with my roots and done the things that I did. I’m proud as fuck to be a Canadian kid.”
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- Djely Tapa: “Linguistic diversity is what makes Canadian music so rich and beautiful. Because every language has its own melody. It’s a country with a lot of immigration, a lot of colours and flavours, and that’s reflected in our music, and should be reflected more in the system.”
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- Nemahsis: “I think Canadian music is some of the best pop music in the world, I’m not being biased. We have the influence of French music. I have the sensibility of this weird artsy girl with a pop side. I have that French-Canadian touch, and this Arabic element, even though I don’t sing in Arabic.”
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- NOBRO: “Believe it or not, we’re really happy with this recognition. Especially for an album called Set Your Pussy Free. I think that’s real social progress.”
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- Jonita Gandhi: “Finally we’re getting a moment, not just for South Asians, but for women, South Asian women in music. I hope that people are being more open- minded to hearing music in languages that they don’t even speak. Things are changing.”
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- Roxane Bruneau: “For a French-Canadian, it was a great pleasure to be part of the opening. I didn’t think it was possible to do that.”
SOCAN congratulates all of our 2025 JUNO-winning members!