"Canary YelLOW with the loafters on"...my breakdown of the Juno's 2011!

So so so much fun at the Juno's.
I highly recommend going to an awards show.
It was a great mix of young and old artists.
I saw a ton of families out (likely due to parents thinking it was an easy cheaper way to see Bieber but alas he is touring in Europe though he did make video appearences).

I picked up my brother at home after feeling AWFUL from the night before.
We made the drive to Toronto.
First we checked into the Westin Harbour Castle which was awesome I have never had a bad Westin experience.  (AND obviously I would have stayed at a W in Toronto but there isn't one there yet!).

It was perfect to because it was only .2km (I totally googled mapped that fact) from the Air Canada Centre where the Juno's were held this year. 

We got all spruced up and I was rocking my best Juno's outfit that included...leather like tights, patent high heels, a silver lame ruffled tank and black boyfriend blazer.  Sorry for the scary face blur but I wanted to show the painstaken ringlet curls I took an hour to do in the hotel room with a curling iron.

So we walked up to the ACC (Air Canada Centre slang).
It was super exciting to see all the limos pulling up to the Red Carpet.  Here is a pic I snapped with my cell phone of the limos.

We didn't have wrist bands for the Red Carpet plus it was FREEZING outside
(like -13degrees Celsius) so I'm glad my brother wasn't into that part of things.
Then my brother suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and just stared and all he could do was point.
To me it wasn't a big deal... just a fancy looking car that had curtains drawn over the window but that one didn't join the lineup, instead it drove down immediately to underground secured parking (you can see/imagine on the right where the entrance at the bottom of the photo would be right in front of where I took the pic).  We just happened to be right at that spot.  Well my brother after he could compose himself was flipping out because since he knows everything hiphop he knew it was Drake's Maybach.  I teased him that he should have taken a photo.  Anywho Maybach?!?!?!...don't know the car?...neither did I.  Apparently it is a $360,000 one that was gifted to Drake from his label when he released his CD last year in Toronto and its the vehicle he uses now to get around the TDot.

Pretty fancy looking eh?! 
So we went in found where we were sitting.  Not crazy good seats but we could see everything going on and there are big screens everywhere so it was nice to see everything.
Of course they served alcohol haha and the Producer of the show was nice enough to come out before the show went on live to air to say..."please don't drink in front of the camera it doesn't make us look very good...but have fun."  I guess the clear plastic ACC cups of beer don't exactly scream "awards show posh" haha.

I had goosebumps before the show even began. 
Interesting enough there are 40 awards but only 8 are presented during the show to make it more about performances etc... plus there are some really random categories like there is Vocal Jazz Album, Contemporary Jazz Album AND Traditional Jazz Album awards.
The other 32 awards were awarded the night before at the Juno Gala (you can see that full list here).

It was so exciting and to have all the Canadian greats in the building was pretty phenomenol.  I loved the way the stage was set up.   It looked like a fancy American Awards show haha.  Here is what it looked like from the side of the stage...

Especially hosted by Drake...honestly he should be on Saturday Night Live...Lorne Michaels listen up this Canadian is HILARIOUS!!!
I loved his skits and his monologues.  His interaction with the crowd was FABULOUS.  I cannot say enough good things about him.  He danced and interacted with the crowds during comercial breaks.  He was an AMAZING host. 

He totally was ROBBED though.  He had 6 nominations and didn't win anything!  Everytime they were about to announce an award I hope Drake could hear that the audience would always SCREAM Drake!!!!  (It was like the Grammy's and he didn't win a single award)...and seriously after talking to my bro who is OBSESSED with hip-hop I totally appreciate his talent.  He grew up acting and doing music from when he was really little in Toronto.  So his music isn't about drugs or gang banging or whatever is usually negatively associated with hiphop.  He makes no claims to being gangster etc. which I actually really like but I now know this is sometimes looked down on in the hiphop world.  I am now commited to buying his new CD (in September because he is SO super nice he is waiting to release his CD until AFTER his label mates ~Young Money is his label name).

Teagan Tangent...Okay let me break down the label mate thing because I had no idea before my bro told me about it.
So a label is who helps make CDs and label mates are all the artists on the label.
So kind of like team mates.
Often this is how they do collaborations.
Young Money is one of these groups.

"Young Money Entertainment is an American record label and group founded in 2003 by Lil Wayne. The distributing label of Young Mula is Universal and they are also an imprint of Cash Money Records. The president of Young Money is Mack Maine who took over from Cortez Bryant in 2009, but Cortez is still the manager of Lil Wayne, Drake and Lil Twist."

Here is a link to the list of all the artists that are a part of Young Money.

I guess it's not super important but it did help me understand more about the hiphop world.  And why Drake wasn't releasing his CD until September even though it is done now.  My brother explained to me that they don't release CDs at the same time so they aren't directly competing basically against their friends. 
How cool is that?!

Okay so back to my Juno's break down.
The opening skit was GENIUS!
Here it is I'm not sure how long the link will be open...

How funny was that??? Best part was Drake/Beiber singing to each other Sarah McLachlin's ~I will remember you~ to each other...everyone was rolling in their seats.

Then he came out and introduced everyone like Arcade Fire, Brian Adams, Neil Young and Shania Twain...
He was pretty much hitting on Shania Twain but it was hilarious!  He sang to her (like a crooner type song with piano..."baby we have so much in common...you used to work at McDonalds...I eat McDonalds...man I can't wait to make you feel like a woman baby" 

...again the whole audience (and Shania Twain) was rolling with laughter.  I hope it is found in this grainy clip.  It is!  Fast forward to 3:15 when he starts to talk of Shania or 3:50 where he sings to her...hilarious!  Follow this link to a way better link that I posted later.

Then later on he had this skit.
Basically saying he was going to go after a new demographic and instead of young money he was going to target "old money"...and this skit involved a ton of Canadian Seniors in a retirement centre in Toronto.  HILARIOUS...then as you can see at the end of the clip he had them at the Juno's in the front row.  They were so adorable and excited to be there (even if they had no idea about hip hop or Drake).  For a half hour after you could see people continuously going up to them to take pictures with them it was awesome.

So did you catch the "Canary YellOW with the loafers on"...it is when Drake first walks up to a senior and is complimenting his outfit in the way that rappers often do to each other.  So so so darn funny!
Then I love how he had the older lady drink straight out of the Champagne Bottle and gave her a blinged out cane.  It was pretty funny to ask them to complete hip hop sentances.  Overall I thought it was totally brills (aka brilliant) and he should for sure host SNL. 

It was really interesting that Neil Young beat out both Justin Bieber and Drake for Artist of the Year. 

He himself seemed STUNNED and asked "what year is this?" and went on to compliment the other artists in the category (including the Biebs- who won Pop Album of the Year and Juno Fan Choice Award).  Click here for the full list of the 8 Big Juno Awards from that night.  Also kind of funny that the International Album Award went to Katy Perry (just weird because I don't think of her as an "international" artist but I guess she is in Canada haha.

Deadmouse (written something like Deadmou5) won for electronic album.  His head is always easy to spot in a crowd.

It was cool to see Brian Adams speak so kindly of Shania Twain and induct her into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. 

Shania looked as awesome as ever on the Red Carpet.  Yes we totally have mountees on the red carpet.

Another TeaganTangent:  Brian Adams wore a jacket from these guys...

They are Canadian Designers Dsquared.  Who make AWESOME clothes..IF I could afford them I totally would.  They had a store in Singapore that was GORGEOUS and filled with beautiful clothes.  And they just happened to design all of Britney's clothing for her most recent tour (Circus!).

I really enjoyed all the performances of the Junos. 
I loved Hedley (how cool is the Piano with holes of light streaming out?)

and Sarah McLachlin. 

I know that Arcade Fire totally cleaned up (they won 4 awards) and seemed genuinly happy and surprized.   

I'm not crazy about them or their music but from what I know of them they did things SLOWLY because they wanted to make their music their way.  So I do appreciate that factor and I guess not everyone loves every type of music...I'm sure not everyone loves Britney (though I do and her album comes out today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

After I was pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel and had a drink at the hotel bar.

We headed up to the room and my brother rented a movie as I promptly fell asleep (I had morning hot yoga scheduled with Eva!)
It was cool that my brother didn't push going out (he is a partier).
But I did feel bad the next day when it was revealed that Drake was at a regular bar in Toronto that anyone could get into.  (And my brother loves Drake and well now so do I).
Oh well I wasn't exactly feeling like going out after my Saturday night adventure (more about that later).

Overall a pretty good bro/sis trip to the Juno's.



Pics from: http://www.hiphopcanada.com/2011/02/2011-juno-award-nominations-announced-drake-leads-nomination-count-with-six-newspsa/, http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/show-music/2011-juno-awards.html, http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/article/962572--arcade-fire-wins-group-of-the-year-at-juno-awards, http://marcustroy.com/my-life/my-life-drake-thank-me-later-listening-party-toronto/, http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://aroundtheglobetours.com/Aircanadacenter.jpg&imgrefurl=http://aroundtheglobetours.com/toronto.html&usg=__9jq2vU-LrR3B47GPHT5rSYsw_PM=&h=300&w=400&sz=72&hl=en&start=0&sig2=MczkeL26hwdJ_743Hq2W8Q&zoom=1&tbnid=ED8CHITc57BwTM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=191&ei=MxaSTdi4JYa20QHY1c3NBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dair%2Bcanada%2Bcentre%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2SKPT_enCA409%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D767%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=188&oei=MxaSTdi4JYa20QHY1c3NBw&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0&tx=83&ty=77, http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110326/110326_juno_fan_fest/20110326/?hub=CP24Entertainment, http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8604803-juno-awards-2011-winners-list-red-carpet-photos/content/76303586-recording-artist-abraham-poses-with-winstead-and-haines-of-the-band-metric-during-the-40th-juno-awards-in-toronto, http://www.hotelbooker.info/torontohotels.htm, http://www.flickr.com/photos/56894751@N04/sets/72157625537945627/,