By Keith Sharp
Brampton’s Alessia Cara waved Canada’s flag at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards staged in New York City on Sunday becoming the first ever Canadian artist to claim The Best New Artist Award.
In beating out Khalid, Lil Liz Vert, Julia Michael and Sza for the award, the 21-year-old Cara noted that she had been “practicing winning Grammies since I was a kid.” She also encouraged the public to support new music saying “There are incredible artists out there, support real artists and real music.”
Cara later hit the stage to perform 1-800-273-8255 with Khalid and Logic.
Other Canadian artists who have been nominated but failed to win The New Artist Award include Anne Murray, Glass Tiger and Corey Hart.
The Weeknd also won his third Grammy, winning Best Urban Contemporary Album for his `Starboy’ Release while Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker” was a posthumous winner in the Best Rock Category.
Other Canadian winners were Nova Scotia’s Barbara Hamilton who won in the “Best Classical Solo Vocal” for her “Great Girls Crazy – Gerswin, Berg, Berio release while Burlington Ontario sound engineer Charles Moniz was awarded for his work on Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic”, Moniz’s third win after previously being honored for his contribution’s on Adele’s “25 “release and Mark Ronson’s `Uptown Funk’.
In a poignant moment, Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie was remembered in the Memoriam section which honours members of the recording industry who have passed on in the past 12 months.