Canadian First Nations singer Crystal Shawanda has been awarded a 2026 JUNO Award nomination for Blues Album of the Year, thanks to her album Sing Pretty Blues.
The record takes listeners on a soulful journey through blues and southern country soul, paying homage to the classic sounds of Stax, Chess, and Motown.
United by themes of resilience, self-worth, and independence, the songs reflect Shawanda's refusal to settle in love, life, or business, delivering a powerful statement of strength and self-discovery.
The selected winners will be revealed on stage in Hamilton, Ontario at The JUNO Awards Gala Presented by Music Canada on Saturday, March 28th, and The JUNO Awards Broadcast at TD Coliseum on Sunday, March 29, live nationwide in Canada on CBC and CBC Gem and globally on CBC Music's YouTube channel.
"It's been three years since my last album, and so much has happened, so there's a lot of life in this music," Shawanda said.
"The good, the bad, the redemption and healing can be messy, and life is not always pretty. That's the Sing Pretty Blues."
The album is the follow-up to 2022's Midnight Blues, which earned Shawanda a JUNO Award nomination in the Blues Album of the Year category, the eighth of her career.
She became the first Indigenous woman to appear in the Top 10 of the American Billboard Blues chart upon the album's release when it debuted at #8.
Produced by her husband and long-time collaborator Dewayne Strobel, Sing Pretty Blues is a thrilling mix of original songs, including the sultry Waiting For My Lover to Call, alongside genre and era-spanning covers of Tom Petty's Honey Bee, Son House's Preaching Blues and Black Sabbath's Changes, the latter recorded in tribute to a late fan and devoted friend.
"She grew up just down the road, back home on the Rez," said Shawanda.
"She had a beautiful heart and just wanted to be loved, and people took advantage of that. Addiction is killing our communities, and her death triggered a lot of emotions about old friends who have passed and loved ones currently in active addiction.
"I needed to sing this song, to mourn, to grieve, because she mattered, and she was loved."
Sing Pretty Blues is preceded by the album's heartfelt first single, Would You Know Love, which was released in January and blends the talented singer's signature raspy vocals with the raw emotion of blues and the storytelling soul of country.
"It sounds like it's from somewhere in between, where old meets new, and the blues meets country, kind of like me," she said.
"It's honest, vulnerable and soulful. When I sing it, I think about who wouldn't be in my life, if I had let love slip on by. I think sometimes people walk away from love too easily when it gets tough, but that's what makes it love. It endures."
Born and raised in Wikwemikong First Nation, on Manitoulin Island, in Northern Ontario, Shawanda was introduced to the blues by her eldest brother and to old-time country by her parents.
"I was also into other styles of music that led me to the blues," she said, citing everything from Elvis Presley's Hound Dog, written by Big Mama Thornton, to R&B-pop star Monica's Misty Blue by Dorothy Moore.
Shawanda's first foray as a professional singer was actually in country music, not blues. She was in her early 20s and had immediate success after signing a U.S. record deal with RCA Nashville. 2008's Dawn of a New Day, featuring the single You Can Let Go, reached #1 on the Canadian Country Album chart and #16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums, the highest charting album by a full-blooded Canadian Indigenous country artist (in the SoundScan-era).
The following year, she left the label and created her own, New Sun Records. Her first release was the holiday album I'll Be Home For Christmas.
Her next country album was 2010's Just Like You, which won a 2013 JUNO Award for Best Aboriginal Album, before she made the change to the blues with 2014's The Whole World's Got The Blues.
Two years later, in quick succession, came 2016's Fish Out of Water and 2017's Voodoo Woman, then recognition as a bonafide blues talent with 2020's Church House Blues, which won the 2021 JUNO Award for Best Blues album.
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