Feist cleans up at Junos

It's official.

The 2008 Juno Awards will forevermore be remembered as the year of Feist, with the alt-pop songstress sweeping the ceremony in front of her hometown Calgary crowd taking home all five of the awards she was nominated for.

At Sunday's televised Juno Awards ceremony in Calgary the expat took home statuettes for pop album and album of the year for her acclaimed recording The Reminder, beating out such music industry powerhouses as Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Michael Buble and Anne Murray.


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Singer Feist accepts the Juno Award for Album of the Year at the Juno Awards, the Canadian Music Awards, in Calgary, April 6, 2008.
REUTERS/Patrick Price

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Font:****She also won single of the year for her mega-hit 1234, a household jingle since it became attached to an all-pervasive marketing campaign for the Apple ipod.

For this honour, Feist again trumped pop-rocker Lavigne and heartthrob crooner Buble, as well as Finger Eleven and Jully Black.

These wins came after the 32-year-old singer scooped songwriter and artist of the year honours at Saturday night's non-televised portion of the Junos.

Presenting Feist with her single of the year nod was Alberta country artist Corb Lund.

"When I lived in Calgary my band Placebo used to open for Corby's band The Smalls," she said. "Let's play cards later," she said, referencing one of Lund's songs.

Feist then proceeded to read her acceptance speech off her arm.

Overall, Sunday night's award show made for a fun bit of TV (despite a few glaring technical glitches early in the broadcast) thanks in large part to the show's host comedian Russell Peters, who took his digs at another super star Alberta act, Hanna hard rockers Nickelback, who were not present at the ceremony.

"The Junos have treated me really well. They've actually given me my own driver - Chad Kroeger," Peters said, referring to the Nickelback frontman's recent drunk driving conviction. "They're gonna have to change the name from Nickelback to get-your-license-back."

Peters also had fun with Avril Lavigne prior to her sugar-pop cheerleader-like performance of the hit Girlfriend, complete with bopping backup dancers and many a colourful costume.

"She's so tiny," said Peters motioning to the star from Napanee, Ontario. "I think I wanna put you in my pocket."

Another Calgarian also took home top honours Sunday when Paul Brandt won country recording of the year for his album Risk. Ian Tyson presented him with the honour.

For this victory, the seventh Juno win of his career, Brandt edged out fellow Alberta country artists Shane Yellowbird, Aaron Lines and Gord Bamford.

It was the second round of kudos for Brandt over the weekend, on Saturday he was presented with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his charity work over the years.

Further awards presented last night went to Blue Rodeo for group of the year. This was sure to raise a few eyebrows as the band beat out internationally adored critical darlings Arcade Fire. Meanwhile, Halifax's Wintersleep was named new group of the year.

Finally, in the Juno Fan Choice category, Burnaby, B.C. boy Buble edged out big sellers Lavigne, Dion and Nelly Furtado as well as Quebec artist Claude Dubois.

Always good for a laugh and ever charming, Buble joked around when accepting his award, which was presented by Doritos.

"I'd like to thank Doritos for making such tasty treats," Buble clowned. "Sometimes when I eat them it makes my fingers go orange but it's worth it."

Later, backstage, Buble nicely summed up the night, dominated as it was by Feist.

"I just keep kicking the crap out of myself for not writing 1234," he joked.

Other highlights of the Juno broadcast included:

* Feist's show-stopping performance, her and her band running through an alt-rock version of Sea Lion Woman, a tune first popularized by Nina Simone.

* Excellent performances from Michael Buble, Jully Black and Finger Eleven. The latter performed its hit Paralyzer with a classical accompaniment courtesy of the Calgary Youth Orchestra.

* Calgary's Jann Arden, who sang a duet with Anne Murray and Sarah Brightman, backed up by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

* CTV's Ben Mulroney referring to Russell Peters as Russell Simmons (hip-hop mogul) on the red carpet. Ha ha ha! That's a good one, Ben! (Whadda bonehead!)

* The hilarious skit in which Russell Peters meets Jann Arden backstage. Arden, lounging in a bathrobe and getting a foot rub confuses him for Mike Bullard with a tan. Arden convinces him he needs to look like a cowboy to win over the Calgary crowd and Peters shows up onstage in western wear. He then pulls a pair of socks out of the crotch area of his Wranglers.

* Triumph's induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Singers Rik Emmett and Gil Moore looked dapper. Bassist Mike Levine, he of the mighty rawk mustache, looked like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap. Derek Smalls in a Calgary Flames jersey! How cool is that?