The Weeknd and Justin Bieber capped of a triumphant year for Canadian music by taking home awards at the 58th Grammy Awards Monday night at the Los Angeles Staple Centre.
Toronto’s Weeknd claimed two awards winning the Top Contemporary Album Grammy for `Beauty Behind The Mask’ and Top R&B Performance for “Earned It” from the 50 Shades Of Grey movie soundtrack. Meanwhile, Stratford’s Bieber avenged his 2011 Best New Artist loss to jazz musician Esperanza Spalding by teaming up with producers Skrillex and Duplo to win Top Dance Single for “Where Are U Now”. Unfortunately Toronto’s Drake was blanked on all five of his nominations.
Neither The Weeknd nor Bieber received their awards on the main telecast but made up for it with sparkling live appearances. The Weeknd, bedecked in a snazzy tuxedo belted out the opening refrains of “Feel My Face” before switching to the more soulful “Into The Night”, accompanied on piano by Canadian songwriter Stephan Moccio.
Bieber launched his appearance with the acoustic flavoured “Love Yourself” before joining forces with Skrillex and Diplo for a spirited run through of “Where Are U Now”.
Joni Mitchell also claimed a Grammy for her album notes on “Love Has Many Pieces; A Quartet, A Ballet Waiting To Be Danced while London Ontario’s John Haust and Hamilton’s Peter Moore were recognized for their work on assembling The Basement Tapes; The Bootleg Series Vol 11, tapes of a 1967 recording with Bob Dylan And The Band that were discovered in a storage space by The Band’s Garth Hudson and were sent to Haust and Moore to be restored for commercial release.