City and Colour wins 2012 Juno songwriter award

City and Colour (Dallas Green) won songwriter of the year honours for the songs “Fragile Bird”, “We Found Each Other” and “Weightless,” from his Little Hell album, at the 2012 Juno Awards, held April 1 at the Scotiabank Place in Ottawa (and the night before, during a non-broadcast gala dinner at the Ottawa Convention Centre).

Rappers Kardinal Offishall and Classified presented the award to Green. “It’s not about your hair or how many Twitter followers you got, it’s about the music,” said Classified before announcing City and Colour as the winner. Green agreed in his acceptance speech. “I’d like to accept this on behalf of the people who believe it’s still about the song,” he said, “not about all the other stuff that Class said.”

Feist and The Sheepdogs were the big winners of the night, with three awards each. The indie chanteuse won awards for artist, adult alternative album (Metals) and Music DVD (Look at What the Light Did Now) of the year, while the Saskatoon rockers took home the hardware for single ("I Don't Know"), rock album (Learn & Burn) and new group of the year. Derek Chalke won classical composition of the year honours for Sepia Fragments, while Malajube took home the Francophone album of the year award for La caverne. Dan Mangan won two awards, for new artist and alternative album of the year (Oh Fortune).

Earlier on the day of the gala, Mangan hosted the 2012 Juno Songwriters' Circle, co-presented by SOCAN and the Canadian Music Publishers Association. Joining Mangan in this intimate musical event were 2012 Juno Award nominees David Francey, Lindi Ortega, Kardinal Offishall and winners Max Kerman (of Arkells, who won group of the year), Kiran Ahluwalia (who won world music album of the year, for Aam Zameen: Common Ground), and Terri Clark (who won country album of the year, for Roots and Wings).

For a complete list of winners visit the Junos website.