SOCAN members William Prince, Marie-Ève Lapierre-Lemoyne, and Leela Gilday won the three songwriting honours at the 2021 Canadian Folk Music Awards (CFMAs), announced online for the second time – on Saturday, April 10 and Sunday April 11, 2021 – because of continuing self-isolation protocols in place to deal with the pandemic.
Prince won the English Songwriter of the Year Award, sponsored by SOCAN, as well as the Contemporary Album of the Year honour, for Reliever. During his performance on the CFMA April 11th show, Prince introduced his song “The Spark” by graciously thanking SOCAN for recognizing it with the SOCAN Songwriting Prize in 2020.
Marie-Ève Lapierre-Lemoyne (aka Marie-Ève Laure) won French Songwriter of the Year for Onze, while Leela Gilday received the Indigenous Songwriter of the Year Award, for North Star Calling. In 2020, Gilday was also one of two winners (along with Haviah Mighty) of the inaugural SOCAN Foundation HER Awards.
Pharis and Jason Romero were the big winners, taking home three awards, for both Ensemble and Vocal Group of the Year, as well as Traditional Singer of the Year (which went to Pharis only).
For a complete list of winners, click here for those who won on April 10th, and here for those who won on April 11th. SOCAN congratulates all of our nominated and winning members on their great achievements!