Three Surrey-based musicians were among winners during the fourth annual Fraser Valley Music Awards (FVMA), held in Chillwack last Thursday (Nov. 21).
Surrey’s Hooper Turnt Sanger took home the Hip Hop/Urban award, Natalia Pardalis was named the Jazz category winner and Alexis Lynn earned the Achievement by a First Nations/Indigenous Artist award.
Sixteen awards were handed out in front of a full house at Corky’s Irish Pub.
Hosted by local producer and comic Harry Doupe, the Fraser Valley Music Awards are an undertaking of CIVL Radio under the direction of station manager Aaron Levy.
In multiple categories, the award winners hailed from Abbotsford (four of them), Chilliwack (two), Langley (four), Maple Ridge (one), Mission (one) and Surrey (three).
Among the night’s biggest moments came with the presentation of the inaugural FVMA Lifetime Achievement Award to Trooper guitarist and co-founder Brian Smith, a Langley resident.
Prior to accepting the trophy, Smith and the crowd were treated to a congratulatory video featuring some of Canada’s top musicians as well as a variety of other well-wishers. The reel included Bill Henderson of the group Chilliwack, Mike Reno of Loverboy, Kim Mitchell, Bryan Adams’ guitarist Keith Scott, Tom Cochrane, Darby Mills of Headpins fame, D.O.A. leader Joey Keithley, Sass Jordan, former Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page, and Odd’s Craig Northey, in addition to Rick Mercer, Langley City Mayor Val van den Broek, longtime agent Sam Feldman and 2019 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Hayley Wickenheiser.
Among those in attendance to help celebrate Smith were his wife Joanne and daughter Jolene, Ra McGuire (Trooper singer and musical partner for more than 50 years), and former bandmates Tommy Stewart and Doni Underhill.
Winners for the 2019 Fraser Valley Music Awards:
Blues – Dale Sawatzky (Langley)
Country – David Ivan Neil (Abbotsford)
Electronic – Stephen Carl O’Shea (Abbotsford)
Experimental – Kristin Witko (Abbotsford)
Folk – West My Friend (Langley)
Hip Hop/Urban – Hooper Turnt Sanger (Surrey)
Jazz – Natalia Pardalis (Surrey)
Metal – Eric “The Lightning” Taylor (Abbotsford)
Pop – Kristin Witko (Abbotsford)
Punk – Joanie Loves Chachi (Chilliwack)
Rock – Gone Sugar Die (Langley)
Achievement by a Female Artist – Lori Paul (Chilliwack)
Achievement by a First Nations/Indigenous Artist – Alexis Lynn (Surrey)
Achievement by an LGBTQ2+ Artist – Mackenzie Widdows (Mission)
Dakota Leslie Award for Fan Vote – Western Jaguar (Maple Ridge)
Lifetime Achievement – Brian Smith (Langley)
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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