Alberta recording artists receive APCMA nominations

Beatrice Love is still considered a relative newcomer to the music scene.

But the 25-year-old Cree singer, who is from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation, is starting to get some more attention.

A recent career boost was being nominated for this year’s Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.

Love, who started her musical career two years ago after winning a talent competition organized by an Edmonton radio station, is one of five nominees in the Best Music Video category. Her video, released on National Aboriginal Day, is for her song “Dirty Game.”
“Of course it’s exciting,” Love said. “It’s nice to be acknowledged from Aboriginals because I am one. And it’s always nice to represent your culture and where it was that you came from.”

Love’s video” Dirty Game” was produced as she was one of the six winners of the First Tracks 2012 contest organized by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

The contest, which has been held annually since 2007, allows Aboriginal musicians to have a professionally produced video for one of their songs.

Winners of the First Tracks contest are also allowed to choose where in Canada they would like to have their video filmed. Love’s video was shot in Montreal.

Upon completion all of the winners’ videos are then showcased on a 60-minute special on APTN. And people can still view the videos after that via the station’s website.

Though she has been interested in singing for some time, Love says she didn’t focus on her music before because she was a stay-at-home single mom. She has three children, ranging in age from 3-8 years.

But now that she has some great support from her partner and other family members, Love can devote additional time to her musical career.

“They don’t like it when I’m away from home,” Love said of her children, citing recent recording sessions in Toronto and Vancouver.

Love is hoping her musical career continues to flourish. And where does she see herself five years down the road?

“Hopefully I’ll still be making music and signed to a big label,” said Love, whose voice has earned her comparisons to a pair of rather successful artists, Pink and Joss Stone.

For this year’s APCMA submissions were accepted until June 29. From there industry voters determined who the nominees would be for each category, in a process which lasted from July 16 through Aug. 6.

The final voting then opened up online on Aug. 13 and continued until Sept. 3.

Besides voters from the industry again, in this segment members of the public were also allowed to cast their selections for 12 categories, including Best Music Video.

Love is not the only Alberta performer nominated for an APCMA this year.

For example, Terri Clark, who was born in Montreal but raised in Medicine Hat, is a nominee in the Aboriginal Female Entertainer of the Year category. She is also up for the Best Country CD award.

Dallas Arcand, from the Alexander (Kipohtakaw) Cree Nation, is a nominee in three categories; Best Flute CD, Best Album Cover Design and Best Instrumental CD.

Other nominees from Alberta are Calgary’s Curt Young, Edmonton’s Rellik (Billy Leblanc) and Will Belcourt, who is from Marlboro, near Rocky Mountain House.

Young is a nominee in the Best Instrumental CD category. Rellik is hoping to win the Best Rap/Hip Hop CD category. And Belcourt has been nominated for the Best Pop CD.

Meanwhile, the Best Pow Wow CD - Contemporary category features four Alberta acts. They are the Northern Cree Singers, River Cree, Cree Confederation and the Young Spirit Singers.
Also, Calgary-based Ghostkeeper has been nominated for the Best Folk/Acoustic CD.

Winners will be announced in 23 categories, during the awards night, set for Nov. 2 in Winnipeg.