2019 SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR | Afie Jurvanen | | The JUNO Awards

Afie Jurvanen isn’t from the Bahamas. He’s from a working-class town in rural Ontario. But his chosen epithet is fitting – it symbolizes the tropical billboard advertisement one passes while dreaming of bigger things en route to a mundane blue-collar job. Since 2009, he’s been making music under the name Bahamas– dreaming that writing songs about sunsets, love affairs and making out with crooked smiles could lead to a better life. And for him it did.

2018’s Earthtones utilized legendary rhythm section Pino Palladino (D’Angelo, The Who, Paul Young) and James Gadson (Bill Withers, D’Angelo, Beck) and was recorded in Sunset Sound C, in the legendary studio and on the vintage API console where Prince recorded Purple Rain. The masterfully slow-groove of James Gadson gives the recording a unique funky R&B sway, complemented by Palladino’s astute chordal intellectualism. Earthtones saw Bahamas highest ever Billboard debut (#5 Canadian, #11 Folk/Americana) and highest chart peak at commercial radio with “Way With Words.”