Juno Awards 2024: a breakdown of this year's nominees

The 2024 Juno nominations are officially out, and while there's a lot to celebrate there's also a lot to digest, considering there are 46 awards to hand out and 235 nominees. 

The 53rd Juno Awards will take place in Halifax this year, hosted by Nelly Furtado. CBC is the official media partner for the Junos, and the Juno Awards will be broadcast and streamed live across Canada from 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. AT on CBC-TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, CBC Listen, and globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos and CBC Music's YouTube page.  

While we have the full slate of nominees listed here, below we've dug deep to figure out what it all means — including looking at the most-nominated artists, nominees who have been racking up awards at the Junos the longest, as well as breaking down gender and geographical representation. 

Charlotte Cardin leads nominations, Talk and Daniel Caesar follow closely behind 

Montreal pop singer Charlotte Cardin leads this year's nominations with six, including both album and artist of the year. She previously won big at the 2022 Junos, taking home four awards.

First-time nominee Talk as well as Grammy-winner Daniel Caesar follow closely behind with five nominations each. Both artists are up for single of the year and album of the year.

Five artists nabbed three nominations, including Tate McRae, Lauren Spencer Smith, Connor Price, Aysanabee and DVBBS.

Sixteen artists scored two nominations: Shania Twain, Lu Kala, William Prince, Loud Luxury, Shawnee Kish, Karan Aujla, the Beaches, Shubh, Alexandra Stréliski, Tobi, Lubalin, Haviah Mighty, Aqyila, Walk Off the Earth and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Allison Russell is also up for two nominations — and she just won her first Grammy Award on Feb. 4, for best American roots performance. If Orchestre symphonique de Montréal takes home both of its awards, it will tie Céline Dion for 20 Junos.

90 musicians and groups see their first nominations 

Across all categories, 90 artists in total earned their first nominations. Singer-songwriter Talk is the most-nominated first-timer. Other emerging artists with their first nominations include Leith Ross, Logan Staats, New West, Josh Ross, Nonso Amadi, ThxSoMch and Shubh, as well as Morgan Toney and Jah'Mila — who are both playing as part of CBC Music's Road to the Junos concert series this week.

Independent rapper Connor Price has the second-most nominations among first-timers. Additional independent artists with their first Juno nods include Men I Trust, Steph La Rochelle and Josh Sahunta.

The hip-hop duo Kaytraminé, comprising rapper Aminé and producer Kaytranada, also earned its first nomination. As a solo artist, Kaytranada has previously won four Junos including last year's rap single of the year award for his song "Twin Flame."

Arkells back after 3-peat; the Weeknd won't break Anne Murray's record (yet)

This year sees a significant number of longtime Juno nominees and frequent winners back again, including three-peat group-of-the-year winners Arkells, who have a chance to take home the award for the fourth year in a row — which would make it the band's seventh win in this category overall, continuing its streak as most awarded group in the category. It's the only Juno that the Hamilton, Ont., band is up for this year, though overall it has garnered 18 nominations since 2010, with nine wins.

Nova Scotian jazz saxophonist Mike Murley and Quebec heavy metal band Voivod are both back with nominations this year, precisely 33 years after they each received their first Juno nominations for best jazz album and best hard rock/metal album, respectively. Over his more than three decades being nominated for Junos, Murley has taken home three awards, and Voivod has won twice.

Shania Twain is close on the heels of Murley and Voivod's long-standing presence at the Junos, as she received two Juno nominations this year, 30 years after her first, when she was up for country female vocalist of the year in 1994. Twain has been nominated for a total of 34 Junos, and has won 13 of them.

And Marc-André Hamelin isn't far off the lengthy claims to Juno fame of Murley, Voivod and Twain: the Quebec pianist and composer returns this year for his 17th nomination, after receiving his first 29 years ago. He has won seven Junos.

While Anne Murray remains the winningest artist at the Junos, the Weeknd is slowly gaining on her record: this year he's up for Juno Fan Choice again, and if he wins he'll be up to 23 Junos — only two shy of Murray's long-standing record. With 42 nominations overall, he's nowhere near catching up to the most-nominated artist, though: that title belongs to Céline Dion, with a whopping 75 nominations, and 20 wins. 

5 notable artists missing

There are a few big names missing from this year's nominations, and the first one that comes to mind is Joni Mitchell. She just won a Grammy Award for her 2023 album, Joni Mitchell at Newport [Live], which was nominated for folk album of the year. She also gave her first Grammy performance of her career at the Feb. 4 awards show. If Mitchell were nominated for a Juno this year for that now Grammy-winning album, it would've been her 18th nomination. She's won four Juno Awards: her first in 1976, her last in 2008.

Drake's name is also missing from the nominations, but it has been for years: the Toronto rapper stopped submitting his albums for consideration in 2018. Drake's 2023 album, For All the Dogs, would have been eligible, as well as his November 2022 album, Her Loss, with 21 Savage. Both albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, with many songs on each album racking up more than 100 million streams. But who knows what would happen if he started submitting again: pre-2018, Drake had been nominated for 33 Junos and won only seven.

Super duo Kx5, made up of Canadian DJ Deadmau5 and American DJ Kaskade, dropped  its debut, self-titled album in March 2023 to critical acclaim, and nabbed a Grammy nomination this year for best dance/electronic recording (they lost to Skrillex, Fred again.. and Flowdan's "Rumble"). And while the duo may be new, Deadmau5 is no stranger to the Junos: he's been nominated for 14, and has won four. He won't be up for a 15th, though, as Kx5 didn't get a Juno nomination this year.

British Columbia producer and DJ Jayda G had her 2023 sophomore album, Guy, named by Billboard as one of the best dance albums of the year, but she's not on this year's Juno nominations list. Jayda G has one Grammy nomination under her belt, for best electronic dance recording in 2021 (losing to fellow Canadian Kaytranada), and one Juno nomination, in 2022 for underground dance single of the year. Considering her popularity, critical acclaim and how in-demand her live shows are, it seemed probable to see her name this year. 

There was also a good chance we'd see 2023 Polaris Prize winner Debby Friday's name on the nominations list, as 10 of the 18 Polaris Music Prize winners have been nominated for a Juno after winning the merit-only prize. However, Friday's name is not among this year's nominees, joining Haviah Mighty and Cadence Weapon as artists who didn't pair their Polaris wins with a Juno nomination.

CBC Music reached out to the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to see if any of the notably missing artists submitted, but the organization doesn't share that information "as it is confidential which teams and artists decide to put themselves forward for nomination in the submissions process."

Caity Gyorgy up for rare jazz 3-peat; 1st-timers take over classical composition

There's potential for a rare Juno three-peat in the vocal jazz category: Caity Gyorgy won the Juno in 2022 and 2023, and is nominated this year for You're Alike, You Two, her album with pianist Mark Limacher, devoted to the music of Jerome Kern.

And sticking with the number three, the jazz album (solo) category boasts three first-time Juno nominees: pianists Gentiane MG and Noam Lemish, and trumpeter Russ Macklem.

If you add up the total historical nominations of the five musicians up for this year's classical album (solo) award, it comes to a staggering 62. Violinist James Ehnes, who receives his 32nd and 33rd nominations this year, is responsible for more than half of those.

The classical categories also include several musicians who've received numerous nominations over the years, with zero wins: violinist Angèle Dubeau (six nominations), soprano Suzie LeBlanc (six nominations), l'Orchestre Métropolitain (14 nominations) and Yannick Nézet-Séguin (15 nominations). Recent Grammy winner Nézet-Séguin is nominated twice in this year's large ensemble category, so there's a decent chance his Juno drought will finally end.

At the other end of the spectrum, the best classical composition category boasts a majority of first-time nominees this year: Amy Brandon, Emilie Cecilia LeBel and Iman Habibi. There's also a majority of women up for that award, something that happened for the first time in 2019.

Bryan and Silvie Cheng (Cheng² Duo) pick up their first Juno nomination in the small ensemble category for their album Portrait, after their three earlier albums flew under the Juno radar. And two venerable ensembles from Quebec receive Juno nods for the very first time, both in the large ensemble category: Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, which was founded in 1987, and l'Orchestre classique de Montréal (formerly the McGill Chamber Orchestra), founded in 1939, proving the adage that good things come to those who wait.

Women represent 31% of nominees, non-binary artists 1%

Men make up more than half of this year's Juno nominees, at 57 per cent, while women make up 31 per cent, and non-binary artists make up one per cent. When breaking down the list, groups that include multiple members with different genders (e.g. Walk Off the Earth, Men I Trust, Valley) were counted separately, and they make up 11 per cent of the total nominees. These numbers are fairly close to the 2023 nominees gender breakdown: 56 per cent men, 29 per cent women and 15 per cent groups with mixed genders — however there were no solo non-binary artists nominated last year. 

For a deeper dive into this year's breakdown: seven of the 10 nominees for the TikTok Juno Fan Choice are men, while pop superstars Charlotte Cardin and Tate McRae are the two women nominated. Indie-pop group Walk Off the Earth is a mixed-gender nominee. 

On the flip side, the artist of the year category skews predominantly female, with Daniel Caesar the only man among Charlotte Cardin, Lauren Spencer Smith, Shania Twain and Tate McRae. 

The rock album of the year is a category that is historically male dominant: in 2023, the five nominees were all-male bands. This year's crop is closer to reaching gender parity, with the nominations of Metric, the Beaches and Crown Lands, whose lead singer/drummer Cody Bowles is non-binary. The nominees are rounded out by the Blue Stones and the Glorious Sons. 

While things are looking up in the rock regard, there are three other categories this year that include only men: country album of the year, recording engineer of the year, and music video of the year. There are no categories with only women nominated. 

Ontario makes up half of nominees

As one of the largest provinces in the country, with one of the most robust music scenes located in Toronto, Ontario tends to dominate Juno nominations. This year, the province makes up 50 per cent of all Juno nominations. While this is a sizeable number, it does mark a decline since 2020, when CBC Music last analyzed the geography of Juno nominations: that year, Ontario took up 75.6 per cent of all nominations. (All calculations exclude the international album of the year nominees.) 

This year's Ontario nominees include Talk and Daniel Caesar, who are tied with the second-most nominations this year, as well as newcomers Josh Ross, Lu Kala and Connor Price. Two categories contain exclusively Ontario artists: rock album of the year and rap single of the year. 

Quebec has the second-strongest showing with approximately 24 per cent of this year's nominees, thanks to artists including Charlotte Cardin, Alexandra Stréliski, Allison Russell and Rêve. British Columbia comes in third with approximately 10 per cent. 

The remaining 16 per cent is split among seven other provinces and territories, with Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador each scoring only one nomination each (blues musician Brandon Isaak and children's act the Swinging Belles, respectively). No artists from Nunavut or Northwest Territories were nominated. 

Searchlight artists come away with 5 nominations

Former winners and finalists from CBC Music's Searchlight competition, our annual hunt for Canada's next breakout musician, have also fared well this year, combining for a total of five nominations. Edmonton-based Mohawk singer Shawnee Kish took top honours in Searchlight 2020, and has now added two more Juno nominations to her first nomination in 2022: contemporary Indigenous artist of the year, and adult alternative album for her 2023 EP, Revolution.

Scarborough R&B artist Jhyve, who won Searchlight in 2021, earned the second Juno nomination of his career for his record Unbreakable, in the category of traditional R&B/soul recording. Edmonton's Josh Sahunta, a Searchlight top 10 finalist from 2020, scored a nomination in the adult alternative album category this year for his record To Be Loved Vol. 1. Mississauga, Ont., R&B singer Luna Elle, who was the top teen winner for Searchlight last year, nabbed her first nomination for traditional R&B/soul recording.

Host Nelly Furtado is bringing the party to the 2024 Juno Awards on Sunday, March 24, at 8 p.m ET. Tune in on CBC-TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music and CBC Listen, and stream globally on cbcmusic.ca/junos.