The winners of the 2020 Saskatchewan Music Awards were announced on Sunday evening in the awards show which wasas an online event, with Weyburn’s own Tenille Arts winning three awards.
The show was themed around ‘retro communication formats,’ with references to Windows 98, AOL chats, MySpace, and more, acknowledging with a wink the virtual communication that has become a part of daily life during the pandemic, and especially for artists and industry who have turned to livestreamed concerts, online conferences, and video co-writing as ways to stay creative and connected.
Performers for the virtual event - ADEOLUWA, Last Birds, Belle Plaine,andThe North Sound – were filmed for the SMA show in special closed-door performances leading up the event, with acceptance speeches from the winners collected as close to ‘show time’ as possible to preserve the suspense.
Weyburn-born Tenille Arts secured three awards, for Single, Album, and Country Artist of the Year. Arts recently was named one of CMT’s “Next Women of Country 2021,” with “Somebody Like That” currently sitting at #15 on the Billboard U.S. Country Airplay charts. The song also reached #9 in Canada on the Billboard Hot Country charts, with Tenille having performed the song live on NBC’s Today Show and The Bachelor. The singer/songwriter also picked up the Canadian Country Music Association’s ‘Rising Star’ award in September.
SaskMusic is very proud of all the nominees and winners this year, and now moves into final preparations for the Very Prairie Series, educational and network-building initiatives for the Saskatchewan music industry, which will be held as free online events throughout February. Updates on Very Prairie will be available on SaskMusic’s social media accounts, and www.veryprairie.ca.
