Loreena McKennit will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in a ceremony on May 15, 2025.
McKennitt is one of five Canadian artists being honoured for “achieving commercial success while having an artistic impact on the Canadian music scene at home and around the world.”
In her over 20 year career she has won multiple awards, sold over 14 million albums around the world, manages herself, producers her own work on her own record label and organizes her own tours.
“In this era of unregulated technology, building a career like mine all over again would be almost impossible today,” said McKennit in a statement posted to her website.”
McKennitt was asked about the “independent root of her success” during a backstage media conference after her break through album “The Visit” won a Canadian music award, a JUNO in 1992. The reporter asked what lesson up and coming musicians could learn from her early journey.
“One’s greatest resource is themself. And I think one should really seize their destiny in the broadest sense of the term,” said McKennitt at the 1992 JUNOS.
“When I produced my first recording, the method that I repaid that modest loan back was to go busk on the street.”
I was first introduced to Loreena McKennitt in 1992 when she won her award in the category for “Best Roots and Traditional Album.”
The results of the voted ended in a tie. I recorded the audio of that backstage Q and A and have posted it to this blog.
The other winner was the compilation album “Saturday Night Blues: The Great Canadian Blues Project” which featured various Canadian blues musicians. The album was released by Stony Plain records which was founded by Holger Petersen. He was also the host of the CBC radio show “Saturday Night Blues”.
The other artists nominated in the category were:
- Bruce Cockburn, Nothing But a Burning Light
- Kashtin, Innu
- The Rankin Family, Fare Thee Well Love
Both McKennitt and Petersen were in the media room after accepting their award to take questions from reporters about their work.
In this 5-minute-and-32-seconds of audio I recorded at the 92 JUNOs you’ll hear both McKennitt and Petersen take questions from reporters about their work.
In this audio you will hear the musicians discuss “the tie”, the influence of both projects, a reference to a performance that evening where cellist Ofra Harnoy accompanied Loreena on the piece “The Lady of Shallott” and the number of blues musicians from Winnipeg in “The Saturday Night Blues” project.
Listen to the McKennitt and Petersen Q and A
Loreena McKennitt would win another JUNO in 1994 for the album “The Mask and Mirror”.
Her website says her music, which is dubbed “eclectic Celtic”, “combines elements of pop, folk and world beat styles.”
McKennitt along with other Canadian musicians Dan Hill, Ginette Reno, Glass Tiger and Sum 41 are scheduled to be inducted.
“I am extremely honoured to be acknowledged in this way. It has been, and continues to be, a fascinating, enriching and at times challenging journey,” says McKennitt in a posting on her website.
“I am now humbled to find myself in the company of all the other artists who’ve been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and I’m most grateful for the enjoyment and enrichment I’ve experienced through their creative work.”
Station to Station with Joe Pavia 
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