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When Toronto-born stand-up comedian, actor, singer-songwriter, podcast host, and writer Mae Martin takes the stage as host for this year’s Juno Awards, they’ll be thinking about kids they knew growing up.

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They’ll be trying to put their awkward teenage years behind them when they emcee the show from Hamilton’s TD Coliseum.

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“What if my high school bullies are there and they bully me and flush my head down the toilet if I don’t do good?” the non-binary comedian wonders aloud. Of course, Martin is joking.

The multi-hyphenate is no stranger to hosting awards shows, having emceed the Canadian Screen Awards in 2024. But speaking to Postmedia, the Wayward writer and star said that emceeing this year’s Junos will pose a unique challenge.

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“It’s different when it’s musicians. Secretly, all comedians want to be musicians,” Martin confessed to Postmedia in an interview from CBC’s Toronto headquarters. “The Junos have always been about celebrating artists who are bold, genre-defying, and unafraid to be a little weird, so I’ll try to embody those qualities.”

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Show will feature CanCon star power

Justin Bieber and Tate McRae lead the nominees for this year’s awards.

Organizers have announced music legend Joni Mitchell will be feted with a lifetime achievement honour. The Alberta native is only the third Canadian to receive the award, which was given last year to Anne Murray.

The Junos will also induct Nelly Furtado into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Grammy winning R&B star Daniel Caesar is set to be honoured with the International Achievement Award. The two-time Juno winner will also take the stage for a special performance.

Martin’s gig fronting the Junos follows Michael Buble’s hosting duties last year.

They are hoping the broadcast feels “like a party” in which “anything could happen.”

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“There will be these incredible musical performances happening so, hopefully, it will have this real party atmosphere. That’s what I’m hoping to bring,” Martin said.

We spoke with Martin about all things Canuck music and why this year’s Junos are about Canadian pride.

Sunday night we’ll be celebrating the best in Canadian music. If we were sending you away for a weekend to an island somewhere, what five Canadian artists would you be packing for your trip?

Half Moon Run, from Montreal. I love them. They’re always on my Spotify Wrapped list. Leif Vollebekk, Andy Shauf and then I’m going to say Tragically Hip and The Odds.

Which Hip album?

Music At Work. I was a teenager when it came out and there were a couple of songs that got into my bones at that age. I put Tiger the Lion on the soundtrack of my show, Wayward. That album meant a lot to me.

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Does hosting the Junos right now mean more for national pride and pride in Canadian culture?

We’re definitely having a moment … Everyone’s aware how fragile democracy is and how grateful we have to be for it. Hopefully, it will be a celebratory atmosphere and one of unity and pride. There’s amazing art coming out of Canada, as there has always been, but I feel like we’re noticing it more. I feel very grateful to be from a country where I land at Pearson Airport and there’s a Pride flag in the airport. I don’t have to be nervous about what I say about the government … We’re hanging on to a base level of decency here. But I hope we realize how tenuous that is and we need to protect it.

The Junos are taking place in Hamilton, Ont. You were born in Toronto. What are some of the best shows you saw growing up here?

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Well, my first-ever concert was 98 Degrees with Jessica Simpson as the opener … I wept … She might have met Nick Lachey on that tour. But seeing Alanis Morissette when I was 13 or 14 was pretty revelatory. She’s like Robert Plant. She’s in the pantheon of great voices. That was pretty mind-blowing. From a comedy lens, seeing Kids in the Hall at Massey Hall was also great. They were doing a reunion tour in 1999 or 2000, and it just blew my mind. People were yelling out the punchlines and I didn’t know you could do that as a job, really.

You’re a famous stand-up star. Does that mean you’ll be less nervous hosting the Junos in front of all of Canada?

You hope you have some muscle memory of how to ride the energy of a room. But it’s different when it’s musicians … musicians are really intimidating because they’re the coolest people on Earth.

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Michael Buble hosted the show last year and that was his third time. Nelly Furtado hosted the year before. Simu Liu did it back-to-back. Did you look at any of those other hosts for inspiration?

They are all icons. I got to try not to get in my head too much. If I start watching all of Buble’s hosting, I’m going to start doing an impersonation of him. I have to tune it out and tap into the energy I want to bring.

I wanted to ask you about your Netflix thriller Wayward that debuted last fall. What inspired that and are we going to get a Season 2?

Wayward was a really personal story. I’ve always been interested in the troubled teen industry and had friends who were sent to troubled teen facilities that ended up being exposed as abusive. So I’ve always wanted to get into that territory, and we used that as the framework for a crazy, big thriller … But it was always meant to be a limited series. For me, I feel like all those characters made strong choices. Not the choices that you wanted them to make, but I feel like it was a limited series.

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I heard you’re a big fan of escape rooms. There’s no way I could be into something like that. I’m too claustrophobic.

There’s an emergency exit button, so you can get out at any time. You got to give it a go, Mark. It’s so fun. I think life is so terrifying and overwhelming that I like being in a confined space where I have one task to complete for an hour. My phone is away and my only focus is to solve these puzzles and get out of the room. The scarier the better. I like the adrenaline. I like seeing how people behave under pressure. You get to learn a lot about your friends. And if it’s a first date, you’ll get to know if you want a second date.

The 55th Juno Awards airs Sunday night on CBC.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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