Arts & Culture

Lots of NEXT favourites among the 2025 JUNO award nominations announced Tuesday, including 2023 Fall Guide cover stars Beaches, who picked up Group of the Year, while our most recent cover star, Aqyila (NEXT Winter Arts Guide, 2024), picked up nominations for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording of the Year and Contemporary R&B Recording of the Year.

Charlotte Day Wilson (NEXT cover, Summer 2022, profiled by Rayne Fisher-Quann, was also nominated in Traditional R&B/Soul while Loony (NEXT cover, Spring 2024) picked up a Contemporary R&B Recording of the Year nom.

Haviah Mighty, who appeared on NEXT’s first ever cover in December 2020, was nominated for Best Rap Single for her track Double the Fun. Jessie Reyez (NEXT cover, Winter 2022) also picked up a nom for her track Shut Up in the same category.

Picking up a ton of nominations was Tate McRae, who we first wrote about in April 2021, putting her on the cover a year later when Fisher-Quann profiled her, dubbing her “the next Canadian pop superstar.” Yup. She picked up nominations for Juno Fan Choice, Single of the Year (exes), Album of the Year (Think Later), Artist of the Year and Pop Album of the Year (Think Later).

NEXT Winter 2023 cover star Terra Lightfoot picked up a Best Adult Alternative Album of the Year nom for her excellent album Healing Power while NOBRO, one of our favourite emerging rock acts, picked up Rock Album of the Year nomination for their excellent release Set Your Pussy Free, to which we gave a coveted 5-N review.

Another 5-N NEXT album review winner — and one of the magazine’s absolute favourite emerging acts — country and bluegrass wizards Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys picked up a Traditional Roots Album of the Year nomination for their superb album, Retro Man…More and More.

 The JUNOS will be awarded in Vancouver over the March 28 weekend with the major awards broadcast on CBC and presented at Vancity’s Rogers Arena on March 30 at 8 pm ET.

Find the complete list of JUNO nominations here.