Every year on March 8th, people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, and at Music Canada we’re showing our commitment to gender equality by celebrating this year’s theme of #EachForEqual. The theme draws from a notion of ‘Collective Individualism,’ and the way that our individual actions can collectively make change and help create a […]

The post Music Canada Celebrates International Women’s Day 2020 appeared first on Music Canada.

Folk rock band The Lumineers returned to Canada last week on the first leg of their 2020 World Tour, beginning with two sold out nights at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena before making their way to Montreal’s Bell Centre and Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre. Prior to their set in Toronto, the Denver-based New Jersey natives were surprised […]

The post The Lumineers presented with Gold plaques in Toronto appeared first on Music Canada.

The JUNOS are a nationwide celebration of Canadian music. But they are far more than what Canadians see on a Sunday evening telecast once a year. JUNO Week provides opportunities for artists and the rest of the music community from every corner of the country to gather and connect, to perform, and to be honoured […]

The post Music Canada statement regarding JUNO Week 2020 Cancellation appeared first on Music Canada.

March 24, 2020, Toronto: CONNECT Music Licensing and Music Canada are sharing an Artist Impact Survey designed to help the government and the music industry better understand the impact COVID-19 is having on artists within the community. At the heart of the entire community are the creators, and they are at this moment in time […]

The post Music Canada and CONNECT Music Licensing Artist Impact Survey Release appeared first on Music Canada.

April 16, 2020, Toronto: Music Canada welcomes the recent clarification from the Federal Government on the guidelines for eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to concerns around the preliminary rules that excluded people working reduced hours. These needed changes will help support artists and musicians who in […]

The post Music Canada applauds Government of Canada for clarifying CERB guidelines for artists and musicians appeared first on Music Canada.

Canadian country star Aaron Goodvin thought he was joining a standard Zoom meeting with his team at Warner Music Canada last week. With the help of his wife Victoria, the 2020 JUNO nominee and 2018 CCMA Songwriter of the Year Award winner was surprised with a virtual Gold award presentation for his single “You Are,” […]

The post Aaron Goodvin surprised with virtual Gold record appeared first on Music Canada.

The COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented challenge for the music community, and has shed light on the sad realities faced by artists everyday. As Chair of Music Canada’s Advisory Council, I partnered with Music Canada and CONNECT Music Licensing to conduct an Artist Impact Survey. Developed in consultation with artist members of the Advisory […]

The post COVID-19 continues to hit the music industry’s most vulnerable: Music Canada survey appeared first on Music Canada.

April 29th, 2020, Toronto: In response to the impact on the lives of artists and their teams caused by COVID-19, Canada’s major record companies, Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada have announced direct financial support for the Unison Benevolent Fund, Canada’s leading music community support program. Unison is a non-profit, […]

The post Canada’s major record companies announce support for Unison Benevolent Fund appeared first on Music Canada.

Today marks Music Monday, an annual event in which thousands of Canadians come together in song and in support of music education. Hosted by the Coalition for Music Education, Music Monday unites musicians in communities from coast to coast to make a powerful statement about the importance of equitable access to quality music education for […]

The post Music Monday @ Home shines a spotlight on the importance of equitable access to music education appeared first on Music Canada.

There is something bizarre going down in Australian politics, and its name is Clive Palmer.

In 2013, this mining billionaire formed a political party he called the Palmer United Party (PUP). Some people paid attention, most tried to look the other way.

This is because Palmer isn't your regular politician

First, the billionaire mining magnate built Palmersaurus, a theme park on the Sunshine Coast filled with fake dinosaurs. Then he moved on to bigger things — with a plan to build the Titanic II. He is a large man with a booming laugh and a twinkle in his eye. Read more...

SYDNEY — Jacqui Lambie is an interesting character. On first sighting, one isn't really sure what to make of her

The tough-as-nails former Australian soldier and single mother of two boys won Tasmania's sixth and final Senate seat in last year's election as part of the Palmer United Party.

The Palmer party is headed up by eccentric mining billionaire Clive Palmer, but if you think he speaks his mind, you need to check out Lambie

From saying on live radio she wants a man who is "well hung" to telling anyone who supports Sharia law to “pack up their bags and get out of here,” Lambie is causing controversy across the country with her inappropriate outbursts. Read more...

MELBOURNE — Australia's politicians have sure made some memorable public appearances of late.

We've had Senator Jacqui Lambie make a case for a ban on the burqa by stumbling through an explanation of sharia law on live television, federal MP and resident dinosaur enthusiast Clive Palmer's diatribe on Chinese business relations and of course, Prime Minister Tony Abbott vowing to get all up in the face of President Putin

And what better way to archive the missteps of the nation's leaders than superimposing their faces into some of film and television's most iconic scenes?

On Monday, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced he had removed the titles of "knights" and "dames" from the Order of Australia, a formal award system that honours those who provide a great service to Australia.

The two archaic titles were only brought back last year in a controversial move by former prime minister Tony Abbott. In a decision that made many question Abbott's leadership, the first knighthood was awarded to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh — a man who has only been to Australia a handful of times.

Taylor Swift is currently sending Australia into Tay Tay fever as she tours the country, and it seems the nation's politicians aren't immune.

Take Treasurer Scott Morrison. The minister was responding to media questions Monday regarding whether he had been offered the treasury job by current Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in February, months before the dumping of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott

We won't bore you with the details, but please note the part where the Liberal Party member told reporters to "shake it off" in regards to these events.

He's one of Australia's most outspoken politicians, but conservative South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi has decided to go radio silent on social media.

On Tuesday, Bernardi mysteriously deleted all his tweets but left his profile intact

It's unclear why Bernardi bid adieu to tweets of times gone by, but on Nov. 22, he made an epic Twitter fail. Bernardi mistakenly quoted a neo-Nazi on the social media platform: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise."

The quote — often attributed to Voltaire — is actually by American Holocaust-denier Kevin Strom, adapted from his essay titled "All America must know the terror that is upon us." Read more...

Selling a fridge would normally be a straightforward affair — money is exchanged, the other person gets the appliance.

For Emily Hastings and her husband Emmanuel it turned into a photo opportunity, when Australia's former prime minister Tony Abbott turned up to their Sydney home to buy their three-year-old Daewoo refrigerator

My husband with Tony Abbott the proud new owner of our 3 year old Daewoo fridge bought on gumtree for $300 #gumtree #tonyabbott

A photo posted by Emily Hastings (@emilyhastings_) on Dec 4, 2015 at 4:36pm PST Read more...

The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has proposed legislation that would allow for convicted terrorists to be held indefinitely in prison if considered a threat.

The proposed changes to legislation would allow convicted terrorists to be detained in jails for an infinite amount of time, regardless of their sentence length. While Turnbull said the changes were about promoting and ensuring community safety in a time of heightened uncertainty, the proposal has been criticised on the basis of civil rights.

Australia has no Charter of Human Rights which would require the Parliament or the courts to consider whether counter-terrorism laws comply with human rights principles. Without this charter, the Australian Government can operate in a legal grey area. Read more...

If you can't beat 'em, erect a coral reef on their doorstep. That's what Greenpeace activists in Australia did overnight in a bid to confront politicians with the realities of climate change. 

The protest held at Parliament House (Australia's Whitehouse) depicted a faux-coral reef in neon white, representing the coral bleaching occurring on the Great Barrier Reef; the only coral reef in the world to be granted World Heritage status.

"Almost a quarter of the reef's coral died this year," Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Nikola Casule told Fairfax Media. "Australia can't have both a healthy Great Barrier Reef and a coal industry." Read more...

Australia's political landscape has long been tumultuous and rough around the edges. But amoung the rough, there is a diamond. Enter ex-prime minister, sharp shooter and straight talker, Paul Keating. He's sassy AF.

Keating made headlines again Wednesday by implying the country's foreign policy was suffering because governmental powers are too concerned with appeasing the U.S. 

It's just the latest public comment in the long line of brutal honesty and cynical realism that is Paul Keating's autobiography. Need hard evidence? Watch and learn children. The shade. Read more...

A note to politicians: Stop blaming an entire race, creed, religion or any other social group for the actions of the radicalised. 

Australia's Lebanese Muslim Association President, Samier Dandan, said as much Tuesday when he responded to claims by Australia's own Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. 

The minister called out Lebanese Australians during parliament on Monday, responding to the wry question "Which group of people, from which country, does the minister believe should not have been allowed into Australia?"

His response was unbelievable. "The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background." Read more...

Terminally ill serial killer Ivan Milat is transferred from the medical wing of Long Bay Jail to Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital to receive pain relief as his health takes a turn for the worse.

Gladys Berejiklian has again ruled out the prospect of pill testing at music festivals despite a leaked draft coroner's report recommending the move.

The Labor Party has walked out of the NSW Legislative Assembly after Opposition Leader Jody McKay is thrown out by the Speaker.

A Sydney man appears in a Gold Coast court on an upgraded charge after Brazilian national Ivan Susin dies in hospital as a result of a head injury he suffered in a Surfers Paradise scuffle.

A fiery afternoon in NSW Parliament ends with the Speaker warning members not to "threaten" and the entire Labor Opposition walking out after its Leader, Jodi McKay, was thrown out of the chamber for an hour.

With the all clear to begin clearing land at Mount Gilead for a 1,700-home housing estate, there have been renewed calls for a national park isolating the area's koalas.

With food, water and money in desperately short supply, dozens of working dogs have been surrendered from properties throughout Queensland and New South Wales.

Jock Palfreeman warns systemic corruption could see him returned to a Bulgarian jail for the rest of his life, and he condemns the influence of the far-right over Sofia's political establishment.

A unique American business model taking 'paddock to plate' into the dining mainstream is being watched by Australian farmers as a way to get a better share of the food dollar.

MORNING BRIEFING: A truck carrying dry dog food rolls over on a busy western Sydney road, and two men and a woman have been charged over the death of a man in Cartwright.

Glenda McCulloch paints contemporary Indigenous art. After advertising her paintings on Instagram, she found the demand for her art is much stronger than she first expected.

Jacob Fuller, the son of NSW's top cop Mick Fuller, pleads guilty to drink driving while on a suspended license. The P-plater blew 0.031 when he was tested on the Prince's Highway last month.

On a property hidden in bushland are old cars, tractors, motorbikes, trucks and sulkies from a bygone era that once belonged to an Australian politician and obsessive collector.

An alleged cocaine drug ring spanning two states is uncovered by New South Wales and South Australian police, leading to the arrests of five people.

Deploying Defence aircraft to bring hundreds of performers to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney presents an opportunity for Australia to gain ground in the battle for influence in the Pacific.

New documents raise questions over UNSW's investigation of its star cancer researcher, Levon Khachigian.

Farmers are entitled to a new, one-off payment from the Federal Government to help them decide if their farm is sustainable or could be sold.

MORNING BRIEFING: Archbishop Glenn Davies says anyone in favour of same-sex marriage should step away from the church and not "ruin it", while a Sydney prison officer is charged with having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.

A social media influencer who led police on a chase with a child in the car has been jailed, but not before she posted videos and selfies on her way to court.