The Scope

Last night the Juno Awards took place and, for me, there was only one place to be — smack in the middle of George Street.

Junos on George

I went down to Junos On George (as they had cleverly titled it) a bit early to see Deadmau5. I can now proudly say I’ve scratched ‘seeing a performance by someone wearing a giant mouse head’ off my bucket list.

He left the stage with fifteen minutes to go and a producer came on to wrangle the crowd before the show. She managed to get the crowd into formation so they could follow Classified down the street during the opening number. The countdown begun. At 8:00, on the big screens, we all saw the intro and heard the booming announcer say, “Welcome to the 2010 Juno Awards!”

Chills.

The broadcast starts on the screen outside

Classified performed Oh…Canada switching up some lyrics here and there, mentioning Justin Bieber and Great Big Sea. I felt a combination of joy and pride and relief, all swirled together with a cheery on top. It was the beginning of the end of what had been an intense week. A week with it’s own unique, Newfoundland-themed fog drama. But in the end, everyone had made it (well, except Bryan Adams) and we were rolling.

I watched the show from outside. They cut back and forth between Mile One and George Street throughout the show. The crowd outside cheered whenever the purple crowd lights came on outside. (If you didn’t see the show, you can watch it online.)

Kim Stockwood and Damhnait Doyle hosted the George Street party

At around the half-way point, the cold and the wet were starting to get to the crowd. Danny Williams’ appearance perked everyone up, but the crowd was thinning. Thankfully, the rain went away before for the finale but it wasn’t until the performance started that the crowd really perked up again.

Danny Williams, our rock star Premier

For that finale, K’Naan and a pile of other artists (including Justin Beiber and Drake, but the latter was everywhere anyway) closed the show with a performance of Wavin’ Flag. I wasn’t sure if my chills were from the performance or the cold. Probably a bit of both.

And then the credits rolled over sweeping shots of cheering fans and it was all over. Time for a drink or six.

Oh, and people won things

In a move that upset every young girl in the world, Justin Bieber won nothing. It was undoubtedly Bublé’s night. He performed, he won a bunch of awards and he scared everyone by cutting a post-show Q&A short to head for his waiting plane, breaking the news of the impeding volcanic-ash-related airport shutdown.

Besides Bublé, Drake got two Junos, and Metric and K’Naan got one each.