Saskatchewan Country Music Awards continue virtually despite pandemic

A celebration of the province’s country music talent was able to happen on Saturday night, just in a different form.

In normal times, the Saskatchewan Country Music Awards would have been a three-day party with performances and the awards show.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing events to either be cancelled or altered, the awards show was pre-recorded and broadcast online and on Access 7.

The show was more than two hours long and featured 18 performances by various artists, some performing at home, others producing their own music videos.

It took four weeks to produce.

“It was really easy for me because I had a top-notch set of producers working. They did all the heavy lifting,” said Wes LaBrash, president of the Saskatchewan Country Music Association.

“They contacted all the artists, they contacted all the presenters, they arranged all the online interviews, they recorded it all, they got all that content assembled.”

Watching the artists’ reaction is an essential part of any awards show, but few were surprised by the results.

LaBrash said all the winners knew who they were. Producers were kept in the know as well. All were sworn to secrecy, he said.

“We have some of the best talent in the country. On a per capita basis, there isn’t another province that is putting out more music and more charting music than Saskatchewan right now,” he said.

“It’s not just country music. It’s country, roots and gospel. I think we hang together and we get along really well. It’s a big community with a million people but it’s really a small community when you get together. You got a lot of friends, we support each other. Everybody’s competing to get radio spots and sell their music but they’re also working together to help each other produce better music.”

With files from Britton Gray