Toronto to host the 2021 Juno Awards

The JunoAwards are coming back to Torontoin 2021, after a decade away from the city where the showbegan.

In a news release, theCanadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) says the show will celebrate 50 years of Canadian music atScotiabank Arena on Sunday, March 28, 2021 and will be aired live on CBC.

The show will be put onwith the support of both the City of Toronto and the province of Ontario.

Allan Reid, president and CEO of CARAS, the Juno Awards and MusiCounts, calls it an honour to bring Canada's biggest music event back to the city where itoriginated.

"This is an amazing city. It's a great music city, and a decade is almost too long," Reid told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Tuesday."Obviously this is a major celebration, the 50th anniversary, and we felt there was no better place to celebrate that than right here in Toronto."

He saidCanada continues to produce some of the world's most vibrant artists, such as Shawn Mendes, Drake, Alessia Cara and The Weeknd.

"Not since the '90s probably when Celine[Dion]and Shania[Twain] and Sarah [McLachlan] and Alanis[Morissette]dominated the charts have Canadians literally dominated globally," Reid said Tuesday.

It was in 1970 that creatorsWalt Grealis and Stan Kleesput on the first Juno Awards show in Toronto at St. Lawrence Hall. In its first year, itwas called the Gold Leaf Awards but was then changed to the Junos to honour Pierre Juneau, the first presidentof the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The JunoAwards were hosted in Toronto for itsfirst 20 consecutive years and five more times after that. Since then, the awards show has been filling up venues all across Canada, from St. John's, NL, to Vancouver, B.C.

Mayor John Tory said Toronto is proudto have the opportunity to host the event for its 50th anniversary, calling it "the biggest event in Canadian music."

"Ontario's amazing artists, industry professionals and emerging talent exemplify that we offer the world in one province," said Lisa MacLeod, Ontario's minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Toronto itself is known for its rich music scene that has produced some of the most famous artists in the world, like Drake. While he is no longer submitting his albums to the Canadian awards show for consideration, the Junoshope to mend the relationship and have him back at the event.

Reid said he has "put out an invitation" to Drake's representatives, hoping to set up a conversation about getting the superstar back into the fold.

"We would love to have Drake comeback to the Junos," Reid said. "No question. He's an incredible artist."

Meanwhile, applications overall have doubled, Reid said, with 2,800 artists submitting their work for nomination consideration last year.

"That means amazing music is being made from coast to coast to coast across this country," Reid said. "The industry has a tough decision deciding who aregoing to be the nominees and who are going to be the winners."

Host citiesof the awards show have seen an average of over $10 million in economic impact with the combination of the awards broadcast, JunoWeek and surrounding events, since 2002.