Walk Off the Earth predicts 2019 Juno Award winners

Walk Off the Earth are no strangers to the Canadian music scene or to the Juno Awards.

Since their first Juno nomination for Breakthrough Group of the Year in 2013, these indie favorites have been nominated for a total of 9 times and won Group of the Year in 2016.

“Just being nominated for a Juno is an honor,” says band member Sarah Blackwood.

“The Junos are such an important part of being a Canadian artist. The awards are Canada’s Grammys essentially. It helps showcase all the amazing artists we have in Canada, bring them all together and introduce new artists. And it makes artists feel good to be nominated or win something, it makes them feel like all their hard work is being acknowledged and people are paying attention.”

I met up with the band on their current world tour and asked Sarah to predict this year’s Juno Award winners in 8 major categories.

Artist of the Year
• Alessia Cara
• Michael Bublé
• Shawn Mendes 
• The Weeknd
• Tory Lanez

“Shawn Mendes. He is exploding right now, and he’s been slaying. Slaying, slaying, slaying. He’s constantly growing, and he is so talented. And he seems like a real sweetheart. I would love to hang out with him.”

Group of the Year
• Arkells
• Chromeo
• Metric
• The Sheepdogs
• Three Days Grace

“This is the Juno that we won. That was awesome. I thought when you win a Juno, they tell you so you can prepare a speech and then you put on this facade, ‘Oh my Gosh, we won!’ But no, we didn’ t know. They legit don’t tell you. When they called our name, I remember just getting overwhelmed and thinking as we were walking up to get the award, ‘Oh my God, now I have to give a speech. What am I going to say? Ok, don’t forget to thank this person, that person and the fans.’ It was so nerve-racking, but amazing. We’re really proud that we won. This year, I think Arkells will win. They are killing it in Canada. They really are.”

Single of the Year
• Growing Pains – Alessia Cara
• Not A Love Song – bülow
• Body – Loud Luxury
• In My Blood – Shawn Mendes
• Pray For Me – The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar

“I love Alessia Cara’s single, but I feel like it will be Shawn Mendes for ‘In My Blood.’”

Album of the Year
• Darlène – Hubert Lenoir
• These Are the Days – Jann Arden
• Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes 
• My Dear Melancholy – The Weeknd
• Outsider – Three Days Grace

“Shawn Mendes will take this one too.”

Pop Album of the Year
• Damaged – bülow
• Head Over Heels – Chromeo
• Darlène – Hubert Lenoir
• Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes
• Intuition – Tyler Shaw

“We’ve actually been nominated for Pop Album of the Year twice which is awesome. I’m going with Shawn Mendes and his self-titled album.”

International Album of the Year
• Camila – Camila Cabello
• Invasion of Privacy – Cardi B
• Red Pill Blues – Maroon 5  
• beerbongs & bentleys – Post Malone
• ASTROWORLD – Travis Scott

“Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Maroon 5, Post Malone, Travis Scott… this is a big one. I think Post Malone might take it. He is super talented.”

Video of the Year
• No Depression – Bahamas
• Places – Alaskan Tapes
• Powerless – Classified
• Hang Ups – Scott Helmanb
• Have A Nice Day – SonReal

“We’ve been nominated for this one before and that is amazing because we love making videos and to get this sort of acknowledgement is awesome. Scott Helman is great, and that video is so good. I hope he wins.”

JUNO Fan Choice
• Alessia Cara
• Avril Lavigne
• bülow
• Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine
• KILLY
• Loud Luxury
• NAV
• Shawn Mendes
• The Weeknd
• Tory Lanez

“We’ve also been nominated for this a few times and we’ve been up against Justin Bieber each time. All he had to do was tweet about it once to his 100 million followers. We broke down what the odds were that we’d win. Joel, our drummer, did the math and we had like a one in 8 million chance. So, based on that, I will assume that Shawn Mendes is going to win this one too. He’s probably going home with all of these Junos.”

The Juno Awards air Sunday, March 17 on CBC. For a complete list of the 2019 Juno Award nominees and performers click here.

Walk Off the Earth is currently on tour. Click here for tour dates. Follow the band on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Mar 15 2019. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.