“Hockey Night In Canada” composer, Dolores Claman (Cultural Impact Award); worldwide hit-maker The Weeknd (International Achievement Award) and Ahmad “Belly” Balshe (Songwriters of the Year); multi-platinum-selling extraordinary talent Johnny Reid(National Achievement Award); Canadian music industry driving force and talent-builder, Gary Slaight (Special Achievement Award); chart-topping teenager Alessia Cara (Breakout Award); and dozens more songwriters, composers and music publishers will be honoured at the 27th annual SOCAN Awards, emceed by hockey-loving bestselling author Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics.

“With seven Canadian songwriters dominating the Billboard Top 10 at one time, 2024 might have been the greatest in the history of music creation success in Canada,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “The SOCAN Awards celebrate recent success as well as lifetimes of achievements, from young sensations like Alessia Cara, Shawn Mendes, Francesco Yates, “WondaGurl” and Scott Helman, to octogenarian Dolores Claman, the creator of Canada’s unofficial second national anthem. The soundtrack of Canada is scored by an astonishing diversity of creative talent, musical genres and music publishers, and SOCAN celebrates them all.”

Presenting awards at the event are more legends, including renowned music producer Bob Ezrin; creator of iconic Canada rock anthems Alan Frew; music visionary Andy Maize of the Skydiggers; famed voice and music historian Alan Cross; creator and performer of pop classics “Sugar, Sugar” and “Rock Me Gently” Andy Kim; Crash Test Dummies front-man and creative force Brad Roberts; Kevin Drew, one of the musical co-geniuses behind Broken Social Scene; and NHL Hall of Famer Doug Gilmour.

Live performances will include sensations Lennon and Maisy Stella of the hit TV show “Nashville”; “Sound of Your Heart” hit creatorShawn Hook; the young and disarmingly talented, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Jordan Hart; celebrated singer-songwriterMatt Barber; and Brad Roberts and Johnny Reid themselves. Throughout the night SOCAN will place a bright spotlight on the outstanding work of composers for film and television, complete with a live orchestra adding musical texture and colour to the evening’s many sparkling facets.

SOCAN Achievement Award winners will receive “The SOCAN” – the world’s first and only music industry trophy that’s also a musical instrument, incorporating five custom bronze crotales – tuned this year especially with the first few notes of “The Hockey Theme.”

The full list of this year’s SOCAN Award winners will be released on the evening of June 20, 2024.

Sponsors of the 2024 SOCAN Awards are Gowling WLG, KPMG, HMV, Long & McQuade, Music Canada, Ontario Media Development Corporation and RBC. Official charity partner: Unison Benevolent Fund.