Juno Awards 2025: a breakdown of this year's nominees

CBC

11-02-2025

The 2025 Juno Award nominees are out — and with 46 awards and 208 nominees, there's a lot to take in.
The 54th Juno Awards are heading to Vancouver on March 30, hosted by Michael Bublé. CBC is the official media partner for the Juno Awards, and the show will be broadcast and streamed live across Canada from 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. AT on CBC-TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, CBC Listen and globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos and on CBC Music's YouTube page.
The full list of Juno nominees is quite dense, so we broke it down to find out what new trends are emerging. Below we took a look at the introduction of new categories, exciting first-time nominees, the gender parity of the list, the regional breakdown and more.
Tate McRae and Josh Ross are tied for most nominations
Calgary's Tate McRae and Waterdown, Ontario's Josh Ross are going head-to-head in three categories: single of the year, album of the year and artist of the year, as well as the TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award. The reigning Canadian pop princess also nabbed a nomination for pop album of the year for her sophomore album, Think Later, which includes hits "Greedy" and "Exes." Ross, a rising voice in Canadian country, is also up for country album of the year for his debut release, Complicated.
The 5 must-hear songs from Tate McRae's new album, Think Later
WATCH | The music video for Tate McRae's 'Exes':
McRae and Ross are followed closely by the Weeknd and Shawn Mendes, who both have four nominations. The Weeknd is four wins away from beating Anne Murray's longstanding record of most Juno wins ever. Murray has 25 Junos, and has held the record since 1993.
Nemahsis, AP Dhillon, Karan Aujla and Snotty Nose Rez Kids all have three nominations each, and Aqyila, Mustafa, Jessie Reyez, Shawn Everett, Les Cowboys Fringants, Celeigh Cardinal, Mother Mother, Sum 41, Spiritbox, Preston Pablo, Classified, DijahSB, Evan Blair and Elisapie each have two.
Surprisingly, despite releasing her comeback album, 7, last year, Nelly Furtado isn't nominated for any awards. Neither was Orville Peck's album Stampede, which includes duets with Willie Nelson, Elton John and Kylie Minogue, nor Cindy Lee's Diamond Jubilee, which was critically acclaimed and regarded by Pitchfork and Exclaim! as the No. 1 album of 2024. Artists are responsible for submitting their own work for consideration, and it's unclear if any of these artists chose to submit or not.
117 artists earn their 1st Juno nods
There are 117 first-time individual nominees this year, up from 90 in 2024. Independent singer-songwriter Nemahsis and Punjabi rapper AP Dhillon are tied as the most-nominated first-timers, with three nominations each.
Several first-time nominees follow closely behind with two nominations each, including pop singer Alexander Stewart, R&B singer Zeina, rapper DijahSB, producer/songwriter Evan Blair and more.
WATCH | The music video for Nemahsis's 'Stick of Gum':
Other emerging artists who received their first nominations include Tia Wood, King Cruff, Ryan Ofei, Avenoir, Elenee, Sukha, AR Paisley, Loony, Sebastian Gaskin, Skystar, Nobro, Ekkstacy, Wawa, India Gailey and more.
Language diversity in nominations for album of the year
For the first time in Juno history, there are four languages represented in the category for album of the year, which is based on sales and streaming numbers, with the majority of albums being non-English releases. Elisapie's Inuktitut is an Inuktitut album, Roxane Bruneau's Submergé is in French, and Sukha's Undisputed is a Punjabi record. The remaining two nominees, Tate McRae's Think Later and Josh Ross's Complicated, are in English.
None of the nominees in the category have ever taken home the Juno for album of the year. McRae is the only artist who has previously been nominated in this category, as she received a nomination in 2022 for Too Young to Be Sad and another in 2023 for I Think I Could Fly.
Inuktitut won Elisapie the Juno for contemporary Indigenous artist or group of the year in 2024, and it's the only album in the category to have already won a Juno.
Ontario artists lead, with almost half of nominees hailing from the province
Ontario's lead has slipped a bit from last year, but it's still the front-runner by a mile. Making up 45 per cent of the list, down from 50 per cent in 2024, Ontarians are represented in almost all the categories, from Shawn Mendes's nom for pop album of the year to Jessie Reyez's nom for songwriter of the year. Much of the Canadian music industry is concentrated in the province, so it makes sense that it is represented so heavily in the Juno nominations.
WATCH | The music video for Shawn Mendes's 'Why Why Why':
Quebec follows in second, accounting for 20 per cent of the list, down from 24 per cent in 2024. Aside from expectedly Quebec-heavy categories like francophone album of the year, artists from la belle province make up a big chunk of the underground dance single of the year (Hicky & Kalo, Suray Sertin, Jesse Mac Cormack) and electronic album of the year categories (Kaytranada, Priori, Fred Everything).
British Columbia is up from 2024, with 13.5 per cent of nominees over last year's 10. The rest of the provinces make up the remaining 18 per cent, and there are zero nominees from any of the territories.
Women represent 32% of nominees, mixed-gender groups 17% and non-binary artists 2.5%
In 2024 and 2023, men made up more than 50 per cent of the Juno nominees (57 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively). For 2025, 48.5 per cent of the nominees are men, with mixed-gender groups and non-binary artists making up a larger share of the list than in previous years. Women have seen an incremental increase from last year, 32 per cent over 31 per cent in 2024.
When calculating this breakdown, duos and groups that include members with different genders (e.g. Mother Mother, Valley, Wild Rivers, Spiritbox) are counted separately. They make up 17 per cent of the total nominees, up from 11 per cent in 2024. Non-binary artists make up the remaining 2.5 per cent of the list, up from one per cent in 2024.
Diving deeper into these numbers: McRae is the only woman nominated for the Tik Tok Juno Fan Choice Award, as men make up the remaining nine nominees, which include the Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, Josh Ross and Les Cowboys Fringants.
The category for breakthrough artist of the year is in a similar boat, with only two women nominated: Zeina and Nemahsis. The other eight nominees are all men, including AR Paisley, Alexander Stewart and AP Dhillon.
WATCH | The music video for Nobro's 'Where My Girls At:
On the other hand, the category for rock album of the year has the best gender parity since its inception in 1991, with Nobro, JJ Wilde and Mother Mother nominated alongside Sum 41 and Big Wreck (two female acts, one mixed-gender group and two male bands).
Women have historically ruled the vocal jazz album of the year category and this year shows no deviation from that trend. It's the only category that includes all women: Andrea Superstein, Caity Gyorgy, Kellylee Evans, Laila Biali and Sarah Jerrom. There are three male-only categories this year: music video of the year, Jack Richardson producer of the year and electronic album of the year.
2 new categories, plus category changes
Two new awards will be handed out at the 2025 Junos: songwriter of the year (non-performer) and South Asian music recording of the year.
The South Asian music recording of the year Juno "will celebrate recordings throughout the diaspora, supporting their tremendous growth and success," stated the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) in a press release.
Karan Aujla, who won his first Juno for TikTok Juno Fan Choice last year, is the only previous Juno winner in the South Asian music recording category. The other nominees — AP Dhillon (who made his Juno debut with a performance of "Summer High" in 2023), Jonita Gandhi, Chani Nattan, Inderpal Moga, Jazzy B, Yanchan Produced and Sandeep Narayan — are all first-timers.
WATCH | AP Dhillon performs 'Summer High' at the Juno Awards:
The songwriter of the year category is now split in two: the non-performer category acknowledges the musicians behind the scenes who compose songs for others, while the songwriter of the year Juno is presented to artists who sing their own songs.
Songwriter of the year (non-performer) nominees include previous Juno nominees Tobias Jesso Jr., who was nominated for three Junos in 2016 (songwriter of the year, adult alternative album of the year and breakthrough artist of the year) and DJ and songwriter Shaun Frank, who was nominated for a Juno in 2017.
First-time nominees in the category include Lowell and Nathan Ferraro, who both worked on Beyoncé's Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter album, as well as Evan Blair, who penned songs for Benson Boone and Maren Morris. Ferraro was nominated in 2009 for pop album of the year with his band the Midway State, but this is his first solo nomination.
The new categories came after CARAS reversed its decision to put the awards for reggae recording of the year, Christian/gospel album of the year and children's album of the year on hiatus. The international album of the year category is currently on pause, with the most recent winner being SZA, who won for her album SOS.
Additionally, the categories for breakthrough artist and breakthrough group of the year have been combined into one large category with 10 nominees, which this year includes pianist Tony Ann, country singer Owen Riegling and more.
Artists cross genres
Several artists have received nominations in different genre categories than they've normally competed at previous Junos.
Jessie Reyez, who has won Junos for R&B/soul recording of the year and contemporary R&B recording of the year, has earned her first nomination in the rap single of the year category for her song "Shut Up."
WATCH | The music video for Jessie Reyez's collab with Big Sean, 'Shut Up':
The previously mentioned DJ and producer Frank, who was nominated in 2017 for dance recording of the year, earned his first nomination for songwriter of the year (non-performer).
Pop band Valley, whose record Lost in Translation was nominated last year for pop album of the year, is nominated in the alternative album category at this year's Junos for Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden.
First-time nominee and rapper DijahSB has crossed multiple genres with their nominations: they are recognized in both the hip-hop and dance music categories as their album The Flower That Knew is up for rap album/EP of the year, and their track "Uh Huh" is up for dance recording of the year.