6 first-time Juno nominees that you need to check out now

The 2022 Juno nominations are out, and on the list are a number of new names. This year's crop includes more than 80 first-time nominees, indicating an exciting shift in Canadian music whether it's young stars breaking through thanks to social platforms like TikTok, or acts who have been working hard for years and are finally getting their due. 

With so many new nominees to comb through, CBC Music has highlighted six artists we think you should check out immediately in anticipation of the Juno Awards on May 15.

Scroll down to meet some of our favourite newcomers this year, and share with us which first-timers you're most excited to see on this year's nomination list @CBCMusic.

Tesher 

Nominated for: breakthrough artist of the year.

Hitesh Sharma, a.k.a. Tesher, has been making music since 2012 (when he was still in high school), but his big breakthrough came in 2020 thanks to a few viral hits posted on TikTok. His most notable song, "Jalebi Baby," fuses Bollywood and hip hop into an infectious melody that exploded online, leading to a remix featuring Jason Derulo. That track has since garnered more than 90 million streams on Spotify — and last summer, Tesher and Derulo even performed "Jalebi Baby" on The Today Show.  

Pressa

Nominated for: Juno Fan Choice, breakthrough artist of the year, rap album of the year, rap single of the year.

Working with Murda Beatz on one of your first singles has to be a good omen for any fledgling Toronto rapper looking to make a mark — especially in 2016, when the mega-producer was crafting beats for the likes of Drake, Migos and Gucci Mane. Six years later, it's about time Pressa is earning his Juno stripes in the form of four nods (the third-highest amount of nominations received this year). Pressa's fourth LP, Gardner Express (a reference to the arterial expressway that runs along Toronto's shoreline), is a sprawling collection that features help from Coi Leray, Swae Lee and Jackboy. Pressa's distinctly pitched sing-rapping has evolved a lot since his hungry days spent in downtown Toronto. Today, his flow evokes Lil Wayne's more laidback approach, but is still allegiant to the dark, wintry trap the North does so well.

Allison Russell 

Nominated for: contemporary roots album of the year, songwriter of the year.

After 20-plus years of following Allison Russell across such wonderful and varied musical projects and genres — Po Girl, Birds of Chicago, and Our Native Daughters — it's no surprise that her debut solo project is a feast of genius. Many of the songs on Outside Child reflect on intense trauma, healing as a work in progress, and joy as a means of survival, while the music itself is all about warmth, momentum, and a blend of soulful Americana and folk-pop. Russell's extraordinary voice models the strength in vulnerability, and it's thrilling to witness an artist's ongoing transformation in this way. It's part of what makes this record so intimate and empowering. Outside Child glows in the wholeness of Russell herself.

Jessia

Nominated for: Juno Fan Choice, single of the year, breakthrough artist of the year, pop album of the year.

"OK, I don't know if this is total trash or if it's actually a bop, but here we go," Jessia laughed from the driver's seat of her parked car in early 2021, filming a TikTok snippet of a ditty called "I'm Not Pretty" that she had just conjured up. Fast forward past a record deal (signed with Grammy-winning hitmaker Ryan Tedder in partnership with Republic) and a Bebe Rexha remix, and what the Vancouver native thought would be a throwaway clip has amassed almost one billion streams on Spotify alone. Now Jessia is tied for the third-most nominations this year. In under a year, Jessia's raw ode to insecurities became proof that with gumption and a little sense of humour, you can achieve pretty much anything.

Jayli Wolf 

Nominated for: contemporary Indigenous artist or group of the year.

Jayli Wolf dropped her debut solo EP, Wild Whisper, in 2021, stunning fans with both her talent and her story. The singer and songwriter from Saulteau First Nation, who first started releasing music with husband Hayden Wolf in the duo Once a Tree, was raised as a Jehovah's Witness in a small British Columbia town with her maternal grandmother, completely cut off from an Indigenous heritage that Wolf knew nothing about. Her breakout and autobiographical song last year, "Child of the Government," unpacked some of that ongoing intergenerational trauma from the Sixties Scoop, when her father was taken from the family, cutting Wolf off from her roots. It's a powerful electro-R&B track, and the rest of Wild Whisper's songs also serve as a place of healing for Wolf, allowing her to stretch into her alt-pop sound while digging into her past and letting the light in. "Would You Die?," a song off the EP, made Apple Music's list of the 100 best songs of 2021, while "Child of the Government" landed at No. 10 on our top 100 songs of 2021. Wolf was also included in one of Rolling Stones' Global Artists Spotlights. 

Korea Town Acid 

Nominated for: underground dance single of the year.

Seoul-born, Toronto-based DJ and producer Korea Town Acid has been honing her craft in dance clubs for years. The artist, born Jessica Cho, is always experimenting with sounds, whether it's teaming up with various rappers on her 2021 album Metamorphosis or just drawing on her classical background and mixing that with house and techno elements. Cho also offers her beats to others, producing "Play No Games" off Cadence Weapon's Polaris Music Prize-winning album, Parallel World. It can be difficult to nail down Cho's sound sometimes, but that's what makes her such an exciting artist to follow. 

Wherever you are in the world, you can tune in to the 2022 Juno Awards on Sunday, May 15. You can watch live on CBC-TV and CBC Gem, listen on CBC Radio One and CBC Music and stream globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos.