Tegan And Sara have issued a new statement critiquing the lack of gender diversity in the Juno Awards.
A few hours ago the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the full nominations for this year's Juno Awards.
Tegan And Sara were amongst the big winners, with the Canadian duo receiving a total of three nominations – check out the full list HERE.
The duo have subsequently issued a statement thanking CARAS for the nominations, but used their platform to critique the lack of gender diversity at the awards.
The note opens: "We’d like to extend a massive thank you to CARAS and the Junos for our three nominations today! Songwriter of the Year is of particular significance to us, because no matter which genre our individual albums have fallen into, it is the craft of songwriting that has connected them all."
The pair then explain:
It is with tremendous respect and absolutely no judgement of each nominee’s well-deserved accomplishments that we take this moment to address the disappointing number of women nominated in many of the various categories.
In 8 categories no women were recognized at all, and in over 12 additional categories, only 1 in 5 of the nominees included a woman. Specifically in the areas of production and engineering, it is discouraging to not see a single woman represented.
We bring this message to members of our industry who have tremendous power to sign, fund, promote, nominate, support, acknowledge, and celebrate the diverse population of our country working in the arts today. The demographic breakdown of Juno nominations reflects the structural confines of our society and industry. We must do better as it sends an outdated message to the next generation about whose art and voice and message is valuable.
The note closes:
…we wouldn’t be Tegan and Sara if we didn’t speak our minds about this important issue. We write this message today in the hopes that we can all work towards balancing the scales for women, people of colour, and LGBTQIIA artists and bands in our country in the years to come.
Read the full note HERE.