Her highest charting single, We’ll Reach the Sky Tonight, earned SOCAN’s Country Award in 1991 and in the same year her homage to Cape Breton, Home I’ll Be, won the ECMA Song of the Year. MacNeil became Canada’s top-selling country singer-songwriter in 19. She would continue to regularly perform with The Men of the Deeps, including at the 1989 JUNO Awards. The song, which she famously performed with the coal miners choir, The Men of the Deeps, soared to No. MacNeil often described her songwriting as arising from strong emotions for people or places, and has spoken of her songwriting technique as being unusual, with the music and lyrics coming together in her head simultaneously in the shape of songs.ġ988’s Working Man, was inspired after a visit to Sydney Mines, and written as a tribute to the hardships and sacrifices of coal miners in Cape Breton – but it would serve an anthem for coal miners everywhere. (BMI), and she was recognized in 2009 with SOCAN’s National Achievement Award. More than 200 of her own songs are registered with Broadcast Music, Inc. With the successful single Flying On Your Own and the double-platinum album of the same name, MacNeil won her first JUNO Award in 1987 as Most Promising Female Vocalist, and ECMA Female Recording of the Year in 1989-19.Ī large part of MacNeil’s successes came with her compositions. She recorded three albums independently beginning with “Born a Woman” (1975), but it was “Flying On Your Own,” her 1986 debut album with Virgin Records, that became her commercial breakthrough. Gradually, her songwriting evolved into a broader folk-pop autobiographical style, and she performed for rallies, at coffeehouses, folk clubs, the Mariposa and other folk festivals. Her melody-driven, heartfelt songwriting resisted classification – sometimes country, sometimes hinting of folk, gospel and blues.Īs MacNeil once told the CBC: “The people in this country have given me such a career and loved me back so much.”īefore reaching commercial success, MacNeil was involved with the women’s movement in the early 1970s writing feminist protest songs. With her shy persona, MacNeil endeared herself to grassroots audiences nationwide and enjoyed commercial success despite not conforming to the music industry’s expectations. Some of MacNeil’s best-known songs often spoke of Nova Scotia, however, her cross-genre appeal and immense talent resonated with Canadians across the country and globally. The induction presentation will include a musical tribute performed by a cast of former bandmates, friends and more. ![]() A special tribute is planned for the 2021 East Coast Music Awards Show on Thursday, May 6, taking place in the songwriter’s hometown of Cape Breton, NS. Today, on the anniversary of her untimely passing, MacNeil’s legacy will be indelibly remembered with a permanent place in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at the National Music Centre in Calgary. One of Canada’s finest music icons and First Lady of Cape Breton, Rita MacNeil, is the newest Inductee to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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