The Juno Awards wanders back to Toronto for the 50th-anniversary event in 2021.

One of the cool things about our national music awards program is how it pops up in a different city every year. After touching down in London in 2019 and set for Saskatoon in 2020, the Junos will return to Toronto for 2021, the 50th-anniversary edition. Mark the date: March 28, 2021, at the Scotiabank Arena.

The Junos began in Toronto in 1970 with an extremely modest wine-and-cheese-affair (seriously!) at the St. Lawrence Market on February 23, 1971, attended by maybe 250 people. There wasn’t even a TV broadcast until 1975.

The 2021 event will mark the 26th time Toronto has hosted the Junos. There was a two-decade run of Toronto being the host city before the policy of moving it around each year was instituted. This has proven to be very popular given that a Juno visit means an average $10 million injection into the local economy.

Vancouver was the first non-Toronto location in 1991. For the bulk of the 90s, the Junos bounced between Toronto and Hamilton before really going on the road in 2002 with a move to St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The last time the Junos were in Toronto was 2011 when they were hosted by Drake at the Air Canada Centre.