Crystal Shawanda, Eagle & Hawk top nominees for Aboriginal Music Awards
Country singer Crystal Shawanda and Winnipeg rockers Eagle & Hawk each have a leading five nominations for this year’s Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.
Eagle & Hawk, an alternative rock group, are nominated for best group, best album for Sirensong and best single and best songwriter for the title song Sirensong.
The group, which won a Juno in 2002, is scheduled to perform with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra next year.
Shawanda, of Wikwemikong, Ont., has made a splash in Nashville and on the Canadian country scene with her chart-topping debut album Dawn of a New Day.
She’s nominated for best album, best country album, best female singer, best video and best single. The Ojibwa singer’s surname, Shawanda, translates to “dawn of a new day.”
She is competing against Vancouver’s Christa Couture and Savona, B.C.’s Farah Palmer for best female artist.
Shawanda and Eagle & Hawk will vie for the best album honours along with Tanya Tagaq, the Inuit throat singer nominated for her album Auk-Blood.
Tagaq, a native of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, who has been filling concert halls for her unusual performance with strings group Kronos Quartet, has nominations for best traditional female singer and best album cover.
Red Power Squad of Morinville, Alta., and Lester of White Rock, B.C., have been nominated for best group.
The nominees for best male artist are:
Mitch Daigneault of Battleford, Sask.
Main Event of Barrie, Ont.
Jace Martin of Ohsweken, Ont.
Nominees for best rap artist:
7th Generation, from Penticton, B.C.
Feenix, from Edmonton.
Wabs Whitebird of Toronto.
This year’s ceremony adds several new awards, including categories for best original score and best hip-hop music video.
The Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, in their 10th year, will be given out Nov. 28 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
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