The SOCAN Foundation has named the recipients of the third annual SiriusXM Black Canadian Music Awards. They are Adria Kain, AHI, Desarae Dee, Nonso Amadi and Zach Zoya.

The Black Canadian Music Awards were created to recognize and celebrate the artistic merit demonstrated by Black music creators of any genre. This year, SiriusXM Canada has doubled their support for the award, with the five selected winners each receiving a prize of $10,000 to support their career development.

According to Keziah Myers, Executive Director at ADVANCE Music Canada, and chair of the jury: “I learned of writers and composers that I didn’t know about, automatically looked up their projects, and it inspired me to think of ways to amplify them within the industry.” Myers was part of the SOCAN  Foundation committee that created the Black Canadian Music Awards, and she has also served as a jury member for the last three years. 

This year the Awards had a record number of applications from artists across Canada, spanning a multitude of genres. Winners were selected by a jury and advisory council of prominent Black artists and industry leaders.

“We’re so proud to help bring this program to life for a third year and to double the prize money for these incredibly talented and deserving

recipients,” said Michelle Mearns, VP, Programming & Operations, SiriusXM Canada.

Special distinctions and awards of $1,000 are also being made to City Fidelia, Haley Smalls, Leila Day, Promise and Shreez.

The recipient:

Adria Kain is a Toronto-based artist known for sharing raw and honest lived experiences through soulful melodies and thought-provoking lyricism. She came up through The Remix Project alongside DVSN’s Daniel Daley and Jessie Reyez. With an impressive vocal range and unique tone, the budding talent has garnered acclaim from tastemakers including Complex, Fader and CBC. Adria’s debut album, When Flowers Bloom, landed her a Polaris Prize.

Desarae Dee is a Toronto-based powerhouse pianist and multi-instrumentalist who has made significant waves in the Canadian music industry as an instrumental fusion artist since 2014. Known as “Toronto’s Queen of Vibes”, her passionate and meaningful sound combines a unique mixture of faith, soul, vulnerability, and divine balance. Desarae has an extensive resume that includes 21 singles and four project releases over the last eight years, regional touring, a feature on the cover of Spotify’s Fresh Finds Jazz playlist with her single “Care For You”. She also made a recent Top 100 finish in the 2022 CBC Music Searchlight competition.

Nonso Amadi is an Afro-R&B, soul singer-songwriter and producer from Nigeria. Nonso transformed into a sonic globetrotter after his move to Canada – leading him to fuse the soul and rhythm of Afrobeats with modern soft textures of R&B. With over 100 million streams to date, Nonso stands tall as a constantly evolving, textured lyricist able to translate Alte, Afro-fusion and hip-hop into his R&B-canvassed approach to storytelling, best represented on his 2019 EP Free, which features Afrobeats heavyweights Simi and Mr Eazi.

In just a few years, rapper Zach Zoya has become a central figure in Montréal’s flourishing music scene. Raised in rural French-speaking Québec, he learned English by listening to American hip-hop, R&B and soul music. Zoya’s passion for songwriting and performance led him to pursue a career in music. In 2019, he signed with Universal Music Canada and began collaborating with some of the country’s biggest producers for his debut EP, Spectrum, which was released to critical acclaim and several award nominations.

Founded in 1992, the SOCAN Foundation is dedicated to fostering musical creativity and promoting a better understanding of the role of music creators in today’s society.