Canadian R&B Singers Get Grammy Nods…But No Love In Canada

By Guest Contributor Cheryl Thompson

Just before this year’s Grammy Awards, I stumbled across a national Canadian news channel that was highlighting what Canadians to watch for at the year’s biggest music show. They pointed out hip-hop superstar Drake, indie rockers Tegan and Sara and Arcade Fire, and crooner Michael Bublé. They said nothing of R&B singers Tamia and Melanie Fiona, who were nominated for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album (“Beautiful Surprise”) and Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Wrong Side of a Love Song”), respectively. Unfortunately, both of them came up empty-handed but it still made me wonder: why does R&B not get any love in Canada? Sure, Canada is most known for its indie-rock, country, and pop singers, but we’ve produced our fair share of R&B singers, too.

Born in Windsor, Ontario, Tamia made her debut as a solo singer in 2000 but, before that, she collaborated on several hit songs, such as “Missing You” (1996), featuring Gladys Knight, Brandy, and Chaka Khan, as well as Eric Benét’s “Spend My Life with You” (1998). Toronto-born Melanie Fiona, who made her debut in 2009, won at last year’s Grammy’s for Best Traditional R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for “Fool for You” with Cee Lo Green.

And it’s not like they were the first Canadian R&B artists to make their mark. Back in 1998, Deborah Cox’s “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here” was a chart-topping single and, in 2001, Glenn Lewis’s “Don’t You Forget It” was consistently played on the radio (even mainstream stations), netting him a Juno Award–the Canadian equivalent to a Grammy–for Best R&B/Soul Recording, not to mention comparisons to Stevie Wonder. While the likes of Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, or Rhianna consistently find their way onto the country’s mainstream radio, “traditional R&B” singers who happen to be Canadian get very little love north of the border.

For years, scholars and critics alike have been criticizing the Canadian music industry’s bias toward black music. Most recently, music writer and author Dalton Higgins, in promotion for his book, Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake, gave a talk at York University in Toronto in which he spoke about the challenges of getting black music heard on the radio in Canada, and the fact that Canadian commercial radio does very little to support black music.

“If Drake were signed to a Canadian label, he wouldn’t have the same support and success he does today,” Higgins said. “The harsh reality is that the Canadian music industry is not willing to dish out the cash for urban artists.”

But in a Exclaim! Magazine feature way back in 2006, Ryan Patrick pointed out that black music doesn’t get much love in Canada because of our cultural points of reference. “The industry has always been white–there’s no other way to describe its infrastructure,” he writes, “Canadian labels, who often operate as franchises of their American counterparts, look to the U.S. market as a model in most of their operations, but the Canadian market doesn’t share the same cultural experiences–in black or white communities or music markets–as the U.S.” Stated otherwise, instead of trying to understand the nuances of the Canadian market for black music, the industry often tries the same tactics that are used in the US–and they just don’t work here.

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