Keshia Chanté on how the Legacy Awards can change the Canadian entertainment industry
The television host, singer and actress is hosting the second annual awards show on Sept. 24
The Legacy Awards are back.
Last September marked the inaugural event honouring Black Canadian talent across many fields, from sports to music. Created by the Black Academy — a cultural and social justice organization founded by actors and brothers Stephan James and Shamier Anderson — the Legacy Awards are a celebration of all the ways that Black cultural contributions benefit Canada.
This year's awards take place at History in Toronto on Sept. 24, and will be broadcast and streamed live on CBC and CBC Gem at 8 p.m. ET (9 p.m. AT/9:30 p.m. NT). Singer, songwriter, television host and actress Keshia Chanté is taking over hosting duties from James and Anderson for the second year of the awards, and she is feeling both "honoured and excited."
Between the awards and tributes there will be musical performances. In an ode to famed pianist Oscar Peterson, Jackie Robinson and Thompson Egbo-Egbo will be performing his civil rights anthem "Hymn to Freedom." In honour of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and the 25th anniversary of "Northern Touch," new school rappers Taayla G, Tamir, YSN Fab and Zach Zoya will be performing the 1998 classic by Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust, Choclair and Checkmate.
The award honourees include R&B legend Jully Black, renowned director Julien Christian Lutz a.k.a. Director X, emerging pop and R&B singer Lu Kala, Olympian and WNBA all-star Kia Nurse and groundbreaking actress and producer Tonya Williams. Black and Kala will also be performing.
"The Legacy Awards are really important for Canada to have because things like this really change the infrastructure of the entertainment industry," Chanté said in an interview with CBC Music. "There's so much emerging talent that needs to see themselves represented on television and to know that there's opportunity and a space out there for them."
While looking forward, the awards also look to the past, paying homage to those that have paved the way for the next generation.
"There are a lot of artists that broke down a lot of doors for all of this to even happen, that haven't gotten their flowers. I think it's really important that we come together as a community and we support one another," said Chanté.
Two such vets are Lutz and Black, who will be receiving the Trailblazer Award and the Icon Award, respectively. In the 25 years since his first music video, Lutz has become a sought after director, working with Drake, Rihanna, Usher, Nelly Furtado and even Chanté in the early days of her music career.
"It feels so good to see Director X get the recognition he deserves. He's been a supporter of my career since I was a teenager as an up and coming Canadian artist and he was shooting these big Jay-Z music videos. He would come back to Toronto and shoot videos with me and because of that, those videos would get on BET and MTV and that really helped push my career stateside."
Black is receiving the Icon Award in recognition of her lasting influence on Canadian music, her allyship with Indigenous communities and her international impact. Chanté saw her as a symbol of what was possible when she was younger.
"There was Tamia, there was Deborah Cox and there was Jully Black, but Jully was in Canada, in the trenches," said Chanté. "I would see her in every city, every suburb, every nook and cranny, performing everywhere. Fourteen-year-old me at the time was like okay, 'There's an avenue for me, there's a path.' You need the Jullys of the world. I hope she just feels wrapped in love."
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