Haviah Mighty helping celebrate 30 years of rap at the JUNOS

Fanshawe alumna and Polaris Prize recipient Haviah Mighty has been tapped as one of six artists to help the JUNOS celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rap Recording of the Year, this Sunday, June 6, 2021.

Mighty attended Music Industry Arts at Fanshawe from 2011 to 2013, and has returned to lecture for the program several times. In March 2019, she performed at Fanshawe's London Downtown Campus as part of Fanshawe Live during JUNO Week.

“To perform at the JUNOS is obviously a huge honour, but for Haviah to be there celebrating 30 years of Rap Recording of The Year as a Polaris Prize winner is just incredible!” exclaimed Dan Brodbeck, Grammy-nominated, JUNO-winning program coordinator of the Music Industry Arts and Audio-Post Production programs at Fanshawe. “We are so proud of her and all she is doing.”

Mighty is the rising star performing alongside the following industry pioneers and icons:

• Four-time JUNO Award winner Kardinal Offishall;
• Two-time JUNO Award winner and multiple JUNO Award nominee Jully Black;
• Two-time JUNO Award winner Maestro Fresh Wes;
• Nine-time JUNO Award nominee NAV;
• Hip Hop pioneer Michie Mee.

The six artists will pay tribute to the 30th anniversary of the JUNO Rap Recording of the Year category and the influence the genre has had on the Canadian music industry as a whole during this special celebration on the broadcast.

The 2021 JUNO Awards will be broadcast nationwide Sunday, June 6, 2021, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, CBC Listen, globally on cbcmusic.ca/junos and streamed live on CBC Music’s TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages.

Haviah Mighty was raised in a musical household in Brampton, Ontario. She started singing at the age of four, rapping at 11 and producing by the time she was 15 years old.

She has two albums and five EPs under her belt, including the 2018 track "Vámonos" which appeared on HBO's hit series Insecure and “Obeah” which was featured in Rolling Stone earlier this year. Mighty is also one of four MCs who make up The Sorority, a hip-hop group born during an all-female cypher on International Women's Day in 2016. She has won the prestigious 2018/2019 Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class and the 2019 Polaris Prize, and she has opened for acclaimed artists like Sheck Wes, Nelly, Desiigner, Kranium, A Tribe Called Red and Snoop Dogg.

“The first time we saw Haviah perform at Share The Land, our annual charity event, we knew we were watching the real thing,” Brodbeck says. “It sounds cliché but there is an X factor to a great performer and Haviah no doubt has it. It’s only the beginning for her."

Mighty will not be the only Fanshawe graduate represented at this year’s JUNOS. Four alumni are nominated across three categories and an additional three are connected to four further nominations.

• Dubmatix (Jesse E. King, Recording Engineering 1993) - Reggae Recording of the Year;
• George Seara (Recording Engineering 1997) - Recording Engineer of the Year;
• John “Beetle” Bailey (Recording Engineer 1990) - Recording Engineer of the Year;
• Half Moon Run (Devin Portielje, Music Industry Arts 2009) - Group of the Year;
• Justin Meli (MIA, 2015) engineered “Dizzy” which is nominated for Alternative Album of the Year;
• Darren McGill (MIA 2015) worked on “This Place Sucks Ass” and “Pray for It” nominated for Alternative Album of the Year and “A Beautiful Place to Drown” nominated for Rock Album of the Year;
• Jesse Slack (MIA 2011) co-wrote a song on “Jade Eagleson”, nominated for Country Album of the Year.

For more information, please visit Fanshawe's media contact page.