Crystal wins first Juno

REGINA—Crystal Shawanda’s Just Like You  has been selected as Aboriginal Album of the Year, winning a Juno award from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

The country singer/songwriter, now 30,  is a citizen of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island.

This was Shawanda’s first Juno. She was nominated for Artist of the Year in 2009, and  Country Recording of the Year for her song “Dawn of a New Day”.

Her first single, “You Can Let Go,” was the fastest rising single in Canadian  history, reaching Top Five in Canada and Top 20 in the U.S. Her 2008 album Dawn of a New Day was Billboard’s highest-charting album ever by a Native American, selling over 400,000 copies. CMT aired a six-part documentary, Crystal: Living the Dream.

In 2009, after five hit singles and a tour with Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley, Shawanda was named  Female Artist of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association.

In 2010, Shawanda toured Canada with Reba McEntire and performed for 55 million people at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.  Last year she launched her own label –New Sun Records – and released her second CD, Just Like You, on April 24. She has won four Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards, five Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, a Canadian Country Music Association Award and a Canadian Radio Music Awards honour.