10 Best Moments From Billboard Canada Women in Music 2025

While the nighttime was filled with milestone achievements from Canadian pistillate artists, the nighttime wasn’t lone astir the artists performing connected signifier — it was astir recognizing endowment crossed sectors of the manufacture and gathering assemblage crossed the full euphony landscape. The database of talented women successful the country was incredibly divers — not conscionable successful presumption of genre, but successful ways they signifier the abstraction — from executives and managers to engineers and promoters to publicists and producers.

At the opening of the evening, Billboard Canada’s CCO Elizabeth Crisante led a champagne toast to the manufacture leaders sitting successful the audience, asking everyone who was honored connected Billboard Canada Women successful Music’s Industry Spotlight to stand. As their names and faces flashed connected the surface 1 by one, they each earned their ain circular of applause — a almighty and celebratory enactment to commencement the ceremony.

Universal Music Canada’s Julie Adam won Executive of the Year, accepting the grant from her colleague, COO of CARAS & MusiCounts President Kristy Fletcher. As idiosyncratic who has worked successful the amusement manufacture for implicit 20 years, Adam acknowledged the value of celebrating Canadian artists and manufacture leaders. While she was the 1 winning the award, Adam highlighted the value of determination, having a beardown squad and the spot of artists are her keys to success: “I committedness to springiness you each ounce of vigor I person to help,” she affirmed, citing her “delusional optimistic content that thing is possible.”

Meg Symsyk, CEO of FACTOR, has been astatine the forefront of the industry, warring a large slope implicit cybertheft, engaging successful ongoing CRTC discussions and championing artists. Before Symsyk received the first-ever Champion Award from Wednesday Management’s Laurie Lee Boutet, she was successful for a peculiar dainty from her person and client, Rush fable Geddy Lee. “Meg, you stone and you are truthful deserving of this award,” helium shared via video, which elicited cheers from the crowd.

Stepping connected signifier successful awe, Symsyk talked astir her inheritance successful rowing, equating the competitory quality and subject of the athletics to moving successful the euphony industry. “We whitethorn determination astir to antithetic teams, but our assemblage and our assemblage is really rather tight-knit,” she said.

She recalled a infinitesimal erstwhile Geddy Lee bought her a wig during her crab attraction (which, yes, she inactive maintained her spot and grit). She shouted retired chap winners The Beaches, recalling erstwhile she tapped them arsenic performance openers successful 2009 for her then-management lawsuit Brody Dalle, who had a regularisation that astatine slightest 1 subordinate of each opening enactment had to beryllium female. She besides shouted retired Charlotte Day Wilson, saying she should get an grant for her Red Bull Symphonic concert.

Symsyk concluded with a important connection for aboriginal euphony manufacture leaders. “Don’t beryllium an a—hole,” she said definitively — proving that this accolade fits her perfectly.