Tegan and Sara Criticize Juno Awards Over Lack of Gender Diversity

Tegan and Sara Criticize Juno Awards Over Lack of Gender Diversity

Today, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2017 Juno Awards. Drake, Leonard Cohen, the Weeknd, Kaytranada, Grimes, Justin Bieber, Alessia Cara, and others picked up nominations—find the full list of nominees here. Tegan and Sara are nominated for three awards, and in a statement, the duo expressed their gratitude to the CARAS. Then, they proceeded to take issue with the Junos’ shortage of female nominees. “It is with tremendous respect and absolutely no judgement of each nominee’s well-deserved accomplishments that we take this moment to address the disappointing number of women nominated in many of the various categories,” they wrote.

Written “in the hopes that we can all work towards balancing the scales for women, people of colour, and LGBTQIIA artists and bands in our country in the years to come,” Tegan and Sara’s letter breaks down the list of nominees. They note that no women were nominated for eight of the awards, and 12 other categories only feature one female nominee each. “Specifically in the areas of production and engineering, it is discouraging to not see a single woman represented,” they wrote. The letter continues:

We bring this message to members of our industry who have tremendous power to sign, fund, promote, nominate, support, acknowledge, and celebrate the diverse population of our country working in the arts today. The demographic breakdown of Juno nominations reflects the structural confines of our society and industry. We must do better as it sends an outdated message to the next generation about whose art and voice and message is valuable.

Read the full note

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