APCA Awards show moves to summer in 2013

The Seventh Annual Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, held as a component of the Manito Ahbee Festival, brought together the best of Canadian Indigenous Music in Manitoba last month.
Jacquie Black, manager of the awards held Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 in Winnipeg, said the awards are a true testament to the success and dedication of Indigenous people in the music industry.

“For the artists the awards are very important. They need to have recognition that they are heard. Music is their craft and a gift they are given,” said Black.

She said exciting changes are underway for the awards next year, including the addition of an award nomination category and voting changes.

Black said the biggest change facing the ceremony will be the event date. The 2013 APCA will be held in August instead of November.

Black also said that a new category for ‘Best International Indigenous Artist’ has opened up on the ballot.

“We wanted to make sure that no one was left out,’ she said.
Black said the organization has also expanded its networking to reach out to potential new artists. Through attending powwows, social networking sites and various events, the organization has been successful in spreading the word to rising stars in the industry.

“It had to do with being proactive on our end, “said Black.
Another change in the awards concerns voting, said Black. In the past voting has been mutually open to the public and industry peers during the same three-week span. This year, however, Black said the committee held a three- week exclusive vote so music industry players and musicians could formally acknowledge their peer nominees. It is a move that has pleased the nominees.
“That [request] came from the artists,” said Black. “It worked out very well. A lot of the artists wanted more recognition from their peers so it just wasn’t a popularity contest,” she said.

“It’s important to acknowledge our colleagues,” agreed award-winning Ojibwa singer/songwriter Shy-Anne.

“It’s pretty easy to have 10,000 friends on Facebook and get 10,000 votes,” she said.  But Shy-Anne said industry votes from peers really acknowledges the art and honors the work.

Shy-Anne, whose surname is Hovorka but uses only her first name in music, has been the recipient of eight APC awards since 2010.

This year Shy-Anne took home six awards: ‘Best Female Entertainer of the Year, Best Single of the Year, Best Album Cover, Best Country CD and Best Producer/Engineer and Best Music Video.

Shy-Anne won ‘Best Music Video’ for her song titled Too Young Too Late, which has been licensed to the Ministry of Transportation Ontario and will be incorporated in their new 2012 advertising campaign against texting and driving.

“It’s pretty surreal. I am shocked and humbled and can’t believe I had that much support,” she said.

Shy-Anne, 36, describes her music style as “eclectic,” admitting that in the past she has been asked by industry mangers and experts to become “more streamline.”

Today Shy-Anne said her style is a mix of country folk and country pop with a nice sprinkling of traditional First Nation culture throughout.

“It’s who I am,” said Shy-Anne when asked how much of her life experience goes in to her song writing. Having spent time in foster care as a child, Shy-Anne was adopted at age seven and placed in a non-Native family that respected her First Nations lineage and helped cultivate her rich roots.

“They made sure I knew my roots and that I was proud of them,’ she said.

“If you have a dream, follow it. You can have everything taken away from you but the one thing you have is your dreams,” she said.

“I finally got one!” exclaimed musician Don Amero, who took home the ‘Male Entertainer of the Year award. For Amero the win was worth waiting for. “I had been nominated 19 times,” he told Windspeaker over the phone from his Winnipeg home.

“It’s pretty incredible!” continued Amero. “Of all the awards I have this is my favorite because it’s been so elusive to me and because it was the people’s choice,” he said.

Since Amero began his music career six years ago he has launched three albums (Change Your Life, Deepening, and The Long Way Home) and has received four national and international awards – Aboriginal Recording of the Year (2011 Western Canadian Music Awards), Best Folk Recording (2011 Native American Music Awards), Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year (2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards), Male Artist of the Year (2009 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards) – and garnered 18 additional nominations.

Amero said he always had a musician’s soul, from playing music and writing songs in his youth to having “dabbled in music, playing here and there” as an adult. Today Amero, 32, is a notably successful—and refreshingly humble— artist, husband and father to a one-year-old son. Amero is living the life he envisioned for himself.

“I had this vision of me when I was 60 years old and didn’t want to be unhappy thinking of all the things I could have done,” said Amero. So he just did what made him happiest— music.

Defining his music style as “a bit all over the map,” Amero said that his main style rests in the sounds of country, pop and folk.
Asked if he views himself as a role model for aspiring young Aboriginal musicians, and Amero says he hopes so.

“The goal is to always be a good role model,” he added. “If you’re an artist then you always understand that there will be people that will look up to you.”

Michel Bruyere, drummer and vocals for the First Nation band Bruthers Of Different Muthers, couldn’t be more thrilled with the band’s award wins for Best New Group and Most Outstanding Aboriginal Manitoban Award.

“It’s definitely a great accomplishment,” he told Windspeaker. “We all feel that it was hard work and we really went out of our way to make a good recording,” he continued.

“This is really a blessing and we’re not taking this for granted. It made us feel like we’re doing something right, like we are on the right page,” Bruyere said.

Bruyere’s bandmates are Donovan, Mojopin, Bruyere on vocals and guitar; Jesse Green on lead guitar; and Leroy Constant on vocals and bass. They deliver hard-hitting rock music with blatant Indigenous themes and bold messages.

Bruthers’ album Speakers of Tomorrow takes a candid jab at the issues that plague First Nations lives, like the song entitled How Long, which illuminates the tragedies around missing and murdered First Nations women in Canada. The single Speakers of Tomorrow carries a strong message to youth asking “Who’ll be the Elders of tomorrow?”

“Our style is straight-up alternative rock,” Bruyere said when asked how he defines the group’s flavor.

“As much as we try to write mainstream songs there’s always a hint of Canadian First Nations issues in there,” said Bruyere.
For more information about the artist and to view other 2012 APCA recipients visits http://aboriginalpeopleschoice.com/home/