How to steal the Junos spotlight: don’t show up

Like most Canadians I didn’t watch the Junos. Unlike most Canadians, I know what the Junos is.

And it is funny when people ask me the next day if I watched the music awards show and I say no that I get called out as being a bad entertainment reporter.

Let’s recap: For two years I covered the Junos, in Vancouver and in St. John’s, Nfld. (at junos.jbonair.com), and went to great expense (those were very costly broadcasts for us to produce) to trumpet Canadian artists and music to my American audiences and the results were the same both years: people didn’t care. In fact, two radio stations actually dropped my programming because of my musical flag waving.

But most Canadians didn’t watch because there was no big name like Justin Bieber attending. Even then, if he would have shown up in Winnipeg for the show he would have heard the boos. That’s right, once Canada’s darling, the country has turned on him.

And making the show even worse — though not saying Bieber attending would have made it better — Robin Thicke didn’t show up as he was reportedly ordered to be on vocal rest, and that was the same excuse used the last time he cancelled a string of shows. At that time, however, he was just ending his marriage to wife Paula Patton. Thicke was spotted out with his kids at Disney that last time, if I am not mistaken.

Anyhow, I didn’t watch the Junos, quite frankly because I had better things to do with my time. But when Bieber won the fan’s choice award he received boos from the teenage crowd and that might have made it worth watching.

Don’t worry, the show was far from a sell out so it’s not like the noise would have been deafening, though it would have been comical to see him pelted with water bottles and garbage like he is at his own concerts now.

Last I heard there were hundreds of tickets available hours before the Junos broadcast. And I can tell you from reluctantly covering them in the past, the Junos is a wannabe Grammys that doesn’t even come close. Think about it: the day after the show, was anybody talking about the great performances or big winners of the night? Nope, they were talking about no shows Bieber and Thicke. That’s how you steal the Junos spotlight: by not showing up. Think about that.

 

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