Last night, the Juno Awards took place in Winnipeg, and honored the achievements of Canadian musicians in the last year. The Juno Fan Choice Award is perhaps the most important—it’s from the fans, after all!—but when it was announced that Justin Bieber beat out Drake, Avril Lavigne, and Arcade Fire, among others, the industry-heavy audience was not happy.
In this clip, you can hear the crowd’s applause shift to audible boos. Bieber was not even in attendance at the awards, and Canada’s Olympic women’s curling team picked up the award for him. This isn’t the first time Bieber’s been booed at an awards show, but this might be the first time that just his name has elicited such a response, in the country in which he was born.
Singer Serena Ryder stuck up for Biebs when she accepted her award for Songwriter of the Year, saying, “I really think that Justin Bieber is an amazing musician and he deserved every bit of that award because he’s been working his ass off his entire life and we need to support how awesome he is.”
Twitter, of course, had mixed feelings on the issue:
A story of a young man who got hated on, booed, bullied but still pushed through everything & made history. Justin Bieber is making History.
— ♕FOLLOW ME JUSTIN♕ (@ObeyJDB94) March 31, 2014
how can u say “stop bullying” when you boo at justin bieber for winning something that he really deserves?
— Calvin Klein ♛ (@itsafredothing) March 31, 2014
thank you to the people who booed when they announced Justin Bieber as the winner. #JUNOS2014
— Emilie (@emiliecc) March 31, 2014
Bieber responded with positive affirmation on Instagram this morning.
H/T The Wrap | Photo via MissCasanova/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)