Honey Jam Canada 2020 Highlights! 2010 What a year! What can we say about 2020!? It was an extradorinarily challenging year to say the least thanks to COVID-19. So many people told us to just cancel the year but we were determined that we would move the earth to ensure that we were there for our artists when they needed us most to provide support and the mentoring, networking, performance and promotional opportunities we promised. We were also committed to mark this historic milestone with a live concert celebrating our 25th anniversary. We’re so grateful for the amazing support we received to be able to pull it all together against all odds, for the longtime supporters who never left our side and for the new friends2010 we met along the way. A beautiful spirit of community came together - all hands on deck - and we got it done! We refused to be defeated and made lemonade out of the rotten lemons 2020 handed us. We invite you to scroll through the pages below to see the highlights of our 2020 journey. Congratulatory greetings from Mayor John Tory Congratulations to Honey Jam Canada on your 25th Anniversary. For the past 25 years you have been doing incredible work in supporting and promoting and celebrating female artists in Canada’s thriving music industry. Your work has brought countless Canadian artists into the spotlight on a global scale including Grammy Award winners Nelly Furtado and Melanie Fiona as well as Juno Award winner Jully Black just to name a few. I’ve always seen art and music and all different forms of art as a great unifier. It's the universal language for our city and for the world for that matter and I’m happy that through the work being done at Honey Jam Canada female artists, women right across our country will feel empowered and be supported to have a voice and to realize their own dreams. We know that we need to do better when it comes to ensuring that female artists have the opportunities, they need to thrive in the music industry here in Toronto and in Canada and right around the world. Through the impactful experiences; the events whether its networking opportunities, performances, songwriting camps, or industry workshops Honey Jam Canada is making a difference in the lives of those aspiring artists right across this country.2010 Over the years Toronto has gained a global reputation for our world class music scene and its through the work of Honey Jam Canada that we can help ensure that this reputation is one that is equitable and reflective of the diverse and inclusive city and country that we live in. So, I want to once again thank Honey Jam Canada for all the incredible work that you do to build up our community and I look forward to all the incredible talent that you are going to help produce going forward. Congratulations once again on an incredible milestone. Congratulatory greetings from Grammy Award- Winners Jessie Reyez and Melanie Fiona I think that programs like Honey Jam, particularly Honey Jam, are super important to the city because they are offering a helping hand to young creatives, women, who are in this massive ocean that don’t really have a blueprint to follow for how to get to success. You know, I feel like it’s already an uphill battle, so to foster and nurture this sisterhood within the city is beautiful and needed, and I want to say congratulations to Honey Jam…and happy anniversary! Jessie Reyez Happy 25th Anniversary Honey Jam, congratulations Ebonnie - 25 years of doing anything is an accomplishment! Much less creating something 25 years ago that would be so necessary for the industry of entertainment and music in Canada for female talent. You created a space and a platform for young, emerging female talent to feel 2010 celebrated and acknowledged and seen and supported. And someone whose come from that journey of creating a career for myself, I’m eternally grateful. I’m grateful for the work that you do for other people, I’m grateful for the support that you’ve shown me, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the community and mentor the girls. I am wishing you 25 more plus plus plus successful years. You are a national treasure. Congratulations! Melanie Fiona Grammy Week!!! before Covid, with the assistance of the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles, we were able to give an artist the opportunity to attend Grammy Week! Along with the Award Ceremony, we visit the offices of Warner Chappell Music, attended a tribute to Women in Music, a SOCAN event and the artist, BlueWill, was also able to work with some producers. Definitely one of those “bucket list” experiences! 2010 Grammy• Week Feedback from artist BlueWill Attending Grammy week in LA, was an absolutely amazing experience. We visited the stunning Warner Music head office, had a tour and met employees and got some very helpful insight on how the music business ran from a label perspective. After the Warner visit, we then grabbed our tickets at the Staple Centre. Tickets for what you asked?!... The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards!!! Never in my life did I imagine I would be attending the Grammys so early in my career; I was very humbled and honoured to have been invited to this extravagant event! At The Socan Pre- Grammy Mixer, I was lucky enough to meet some of Canada’s music veterans – managers, producers, songwriters, musicians, publishers, entertainment lawyers, artists, label reps were all there. We visited the Canadian General Consulate office and then headed over to the Facebook and Instagram brunch called ‘Empowher’. This was one of my favourite Grammy week events, not only was I surrounded by hundreds of intelligent, talented, powerful, boss-women, but it also gave me hope for my future career in this music industry. Did I mention I got to meet Charlotte Day Wilson, Ella Mai, the legendary Sylvia Rhone, Ms. Ethiopia (CEO and Chairwoman of Motown) and Melanie Fiona (who is also a Honey Jam Alumni). I was also able to get some time in the studio with some local producers. The big finale to this trip was, of course, the2010 Grammys. It was amazing evening filled with musical celebration. Sadly that morning we learned the tragic news of Kobe Bryant‘s passing. Even though our hearts were saddened and shocked, everyone came together for an emotional evening. It was so heartwarming to see how much love and support was shown. Lots of laughs, tears, memories and tributes were shared, many amazing performances by artists like Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Lil Naz X, etc. The Grammys provide us with a lovely gift bag and the ceremony was followed by an after party where the attendees were treated to more live music, attractions, endless amounts of food and treats. I am thankful for this incredible experience. Thank you so much Honey Jam; I am forever grateful and so inspired! BlueWill Activism played a huge part in our lives over the summer of 2020. We volunteered at and were promotional sponsors for the Block4Blac fundraiser to raise money for the Black Legal Action Centre. Our artists wrote protest songs, participated on panels on racism, marched and promoted blackout Tuesday where the music industry was asked to pause and reflect for a day, with one of proponents saying “I don’t want to sit on Zoom calls talking about the black artists who are making you so much money if you fail to address what’s happening to black people.” Many companies and individuals posted black squares on their social media. The hope is that that performative gesture doesn’t end there and that we will see meaningful, intentional transformative change when it comes to anti- racism. 2010 The Virtual World took over once COVID hit. We found many online learning opportunities to share with the artists and several agencies and organizations supported our artists by providing paying online performance opportunities. 2010 LAUNCH – once we were able to gather safely, we were excited to have our launch and share the plans for our 25th anniversary concert and 2020 programming! 2010 Music Publishers Canada’s “Women in the Studio” Programme is a national accelerator that offers a series of curated production-related opportunities and networking experiences to producer-songwriters, including interactive group webinars and tutorials. The goals are to provide access to industry mentors; share tips & tools for building and developing a professional profile, facilitate hands-on technical workshops and entrepreneurial training sessions, offer networking opportunities to broader their contact base of collaborators, potential employers & business partners, develop entrepreneurial business and soft skills and encourage community participation through volunteer activity. Honey Jam alum LUKALA mentored some of the producers and another one of our alums, Reeny Smith was one of the producers in the programme and used her volunteer hours to mentor Honey Jam artist Kelsey Vaz who says: “the 2-3 hour blocks of learning and deep discussions have been a huge help for me. We covered topics like work life balance, building relationships, navigating relationships in the industry, studio setup, songwriting, live shows, basic production on Logic, recording, mixing and a lot more. The idea of a mentor for me was so exciting at first because I was ready to learn and soak in as much as I could to improve my craft. After a few months I realized that because of quarantine and lockdown just being able to talk to another artist this openly about your goals and struggles was invaluable.” 2010 Honey Jam alum Jordan Alexander returned to share her experiences in the industry with some of our young artists.