TorontoSun.com – Music – It’s three for five

TorontoSun.com – Music – It’s three for five

It’s three for five
Nelly Furtado, K-OS and Billy Talent top the nominee list for the Juno Awards

By JANE STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA

It’s a busy time for Nelly Furtado. The Victoria, B.C., native received five Juno nominations. (AP FILE PHOTO)
Nelly Furtado has been invited back to the Juno ball.

The Victoria, B.C. songbird, whose last big Juno haul was in 2001 when she won four trophies, picked up a leading five 2007 Juno nominations yesterday, tying with Toronto’s pop-punk act Billy Talent and hip-hop innovator K-OS.

Furtado will vie for album and pop album of the year for her third disc, Loose, single of the year for Promiscuous, artist of the year and the Juno Fan Choice Award.

It caps what already has been a big year for Furtado: she’ll also host the 2007 Junos on April 1 in Saskatoon, will vie for a single Grammy on Sunday in L.A. where she is also a presenter, will make her acting debut on a CSI: New York episode tonight and launches a major concert tour in March.

Otherwise, Billy Talent, who just played their first sold-out show at the Air Canada Centre last Friday, and K-OS have kept their recent Juno momentum going.

Both were big winners at the 2005 Junos with K-OS a triple winner including single of the year, and Billy Talent was a double winner including album of the year.

Yesterday, Billy Talent’s sophomore album, Billy Talent II got the nod for album and rock album of the year, their song, Devil In A Midnight Mass, was nominated for single and video of the year, and they’ll compete for the group-of-the-year honours.

K-OS’ disc, Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, was left out of the 2007 best album race but will compete for pop album, while his song, Sunday Morning is up for single of the year. He also has been nominated for songwriter and producer of the year and best video for Electrik Heat: The Seekwill.

Legendary rock producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Motley Crue, Bryan Adams, Metallica, The Tragically Hip) was announced yesterday as this year’s inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Rock is also a nominee for producer of the year for his work on The Hip’s latest disc, World Container.

Overall, it was a slightly improved nomination list over last year’s which was criticized for favouring the mainstream over indie acts and the presence of two Canadian Idol participants in the best album category.

Still, some Idol alumni made their way into the 2007 Juno race, most prominently faux-pop-punk act Hedley — lead by 2004 Idol loser Jacob Hoggard — who came away with three nods including alb um of the year for Hedley, group of the year and music DVD of the year for Try This At Home.

The remainder of the album of year nominees aren’t much better — classically trained Montreal singer Gregory Charles’ I Think Of You (Charles is another triple nominee) — and mainstream rockers Three Days Grace’ ONE-X.

Thankfully, other triple Juno 2007 nominees such as Dallas Green (both of City And Colour and Alexisonfire) angel-voiced singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer and respected Quebecois act Malajube, go some way towards giving a more accurate picture of Canada’s music talent.

Still, Green was robbed in the single of the year race for the exclusion of his City And Colour song, Save Your Scissors, when tunes such as Chantal Kreviazuk’s All I Can Do, and Jim Cuddy’s Pull Me Through inexplicably made the cut.

It was also announced yesterday that double nominees The Tragically Hip will perform during the Juno ceremony.

Here’s the “Most Nominated at the 2007 Junos” list:
With 5: Nelly Furtado, Billy Talent, K-OS

With 3: Dallas Green, Sarah Harmer, Hedley, Gregory Charles, Malajube