How Ozzy Osbourne inspired Crystal Shawanda, Juno nominee for blues album of the year

By Canadian Press on March 25, 2026.

Crystal Shawanda knew she had a powerful voice when she began singing at the age of six, but it was listening to rock ’n’ roll legend Ozzy Osbourne that helped craft and shape her vocal prowess.

“Ozzy was one of my favourite vocalists. Actually, I learned a lot from him about my voice because there wasn’t a lot of singers out there that I heard who had the style of attack that I have,” she said, noting it was her brother who introduced Black Sabbath to her during those early formative years.

“The way Ozzy would pinch his vocals and how he can go real clean, but he could also bring out a more rock ’n’ roll side to his vocals — an edgier side …. I definitely learned that from Ozzy.”

Shawanda’s “Sing Pretty Blues” is up for blues album of the year this weekend at the Juno Awards in Hamilton. She’s up against Miss Emily’s “The Medicine,” Secondhand Dreamcar with “Answer the Call,” Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne with “Ooh Yeah!” and Steve Marriner with “Hear My Heart.”

The soulful album features a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” which she recorded before Osbourne’s death last July.

“I recorded that song because it was, it became, such good medicine for me when a longtime fan friend passed away. But it was also my way of paying homage to one of those vocalists who is one of my greatest vocal teachers,” Shawanda said during a video call last month from Nashville.

“When I do cover songs, it’s because that’s my way of saying ‘Thank you. You gave this beautiful gift of music to me.’ And you know, even if they never hear it, I want the universe to know that I learned from this artist.”

And those learnings have once again paid off for the nine-time nominee and two-time winner.

Shawanda plans to attend the Juno celebrations, which culminate in the live broadcast on Sunday night, hosted by Mae Martin.

The show will feature a special performance by Sarah McLachlan and Allison Russell to honour Joni Mitchell as the folk legend accepts her 2026 lifetime achievement award. Justin Bieber and Tate McRae lead this year’s nominees with six, while The Weeknd and Cameron Whitcomb are close behind with five nominations each.

Shawanda’s award is set to be presented at a gala on Saturday night, when the bulk of the awards are handed out. She will be travelling up from Nashville where she’s lived for more than 20 years, and where she recorded her album.

She spoke about how the city has been making headlines due to raids by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We were actually downtown playing at a club here in town called Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, when they had the huge ICE raid downtown Nashville. And you know it basically shut down so many of the businesses because, you know, besides the people they did take away, a lot of people just left and ran, because they got a warning and they were able to run,” Shawanda said.

“It is a scary time and you don’t know what to expect and anything can happen. So I always travel with my status card and my quantum letter. The energies out there in the air, myself, I’ve been very blessed and lucky that I haven’t experienced any negativity so far. I tend to lay low and stick to my, you know, I’m always in the studio, so I’m rarely out there.”

Shawanda, who grew up in Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, broke into the music business in her early 20s, taking on the country music world, and landing a record deal with RCA Nashville.

“There was always a huge amount of pressure on me, but I took it in stride, I accepted it and I embraced it. When I was a little kid, my mom would always tell me, ‘there’s nobody like you that exists in country music or on the mainstream music scene. You will be the first to take up these spaces. So you have to represent your people, your community, and your family in a good way.’”

That sense of pride helped her land her first two Juno nominations in 2009 for New Artist of the Year and Country Recording of the Year for “Dawn of a New Day.”

A year later, Shawanda would part ways with RCA Nashville and step out on her own, forming her own record label New Sun Records.

“When I was with RCA, I knew it was an incredible opportunity. So I wanted to make them all proud of me. So I became a bit of a ‘yes’ person. I didn’t want to let them down. And then I lost my voice along the way in my own artistry, my own point of view. And so, I wanted to start a record company, so I could have the freedom to explore, experiment, remember who I was as an artist, as a person. What is my voice?”

In 2013 she won the Juno award then known as Aboriginal album of the year for “Just Like You,” and then blues album of the year in 2021 for “Church House Blues.” Her 2022 album “Midnight Blues” also debuted in the Top 10 of the American Billboard blues charts.

Next up for Shawanda: “I’m actually recording my next blues album right now, we’ve got over half of it done,” she said.

The upcoming album will also feature a cover, this time by one of Canada’s best, the late Jeff Healey.

“It’s the song ‘I Think I Love You Too Much.’ It’s really cool. It’s one of my favourite songs that we’ve done so far.”

Shawanda is also working on a children’s lullaby album with her nine-year-old daughter Zhaawande, re-recording a few of her own songs in the Anishinaabemowin language, and helping Zhaawande with her solo career.

“She’s doing her own album. We’re doing a little mini album of pop songs, of pop folk songs, a few of them she works in the language, kind of what they did with the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ movie. And sometimes they sing some of the lyrics in Korean. So she’s kind of doing that with the Anishinaabemowin, so we’re pretty excited about that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2026.

Craig Macrae, The Canadian Press

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