The Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame inducts David Foster, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette, And Others.

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) honoured David Foster, Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, Alanis Morissette, and francophone legend Daniel Lavoie at a gala ceremony at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Saturday night (Sept. 24), highlighting their incredible hit-laden careers, influence, and legacy.

The three-and-a-half-hour show, hosted by platinum-selling Quebec singer-songwriter Marie-Mai, featured tribute performances by Corey Hart, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake, Alessia Cara, JP Saxe, Charlotte Cardin, Jessie Reyez, Serena Ryder, and Chicago’s Neil Donell, backed by a house band.

“It was a song that inspired me to write ‘Where Do We Go From Here,’ and it was that song that landed me my own recording deal and got me signed,” she said from the stage. “Without you and your incredible music, I would not be standing here tonight.”

Her words summed up an evening filled with praise for the inductees from other songwriters, the majority of whom were younger and were writing and expanding on their own catalogue of hits. Serena Ryder, who delivered an immaculate rendition of “You Oughta Know,” told Morissette that her songs allow her to “speak from a place of authenticity and truth.”

Foster, who was inducted into the New York-based Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, was the night’s first inductee, “once known as the guy who drove Ronnie Hawkins’ tour bus,” Marie-Mae reminded us, who went on to pen hits for Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many more, and win 16 Grammys. Bryan Adams, a fellow inductee, did the honours (Foster later reciprocated), calling him “a superb creative legend in the Canadian music industry” with “as much talent as anyone has ever existed here.”

“He’s a musician, producer, performer, artist, label head, and songwriter — and probably a publisher as well.” “I’m glad he can’t sing; he’d be a f—in’ nightmare,” Adams joked.

“However, his abilities are limitless.” He is someone we all admire and respect for his contributions to music and philanthropy. I mean, he’s brilliant, and he’d be the first to tell you so. David Foster is here.”

Foster, it is true, is not the most humble when it comes to his abilities, and rightly so, but he does have a sense of humour and used his acceptance speech time to thank some key people in his career, including co-writers, managers, arrangers, label executives, and Canada.

“This incredible community of artists and performers is one of the great things about this country.” We help each other. “We lift each other up, and to be recognised here, in such exceptional company, is a great honour,” he said, later adding, “It’s really the highest praise a musician can hope for to come home and be recognised for songwriting.”

Foster then went off on a tangent about his fear of elevators (“Fosterophobia,” he called it), and no one knew where it was going. “‘You know why you don’t go in elevators,’ said a friend and great Canadian. Because you’re afraid of hearing your own music in there,'” he said to applause from the mostly industry audience. “I understand. It isn’t Alanis. It isn’t Bryan. It’s background music. It’s in the middle of the road. Songs that you play for your grandmother. ‘Popular,’ I say, but you can say whatever you want. It’s the music I hear and the music that flows through my fingers when I sit down to play the piano. I didn’t choose my sound; I was chosen by it.

“And just for the record,” he said. “I love all kinds of music: Drake, Bieber, The Weeknd, Bublé — they’re all killin’ it — and they’re all uniquely” — he paused, his arms stretched out wide, as if conducting — and the audience yelled back “Canadian” in unison.

Morissette came up next. “You contribute so f—in’ much to Canadian heritage and Canadian musicianship and making me feel at home in my imperfections,” Jessie Reyez, who performed “Ironic,” said.

He then told a true story about Vallance’s roommate’s cat marking its territory by pissing on their instruments in the basement studio at the rented house. “Either the cat was very territorial or he just disliked music because he only pissed where we worked.” “Every day would begin with us determining which instrument had [been] pissed on, followed by songwriting,” he laughed, making wiping gestures with his hand before putting it up to his nose to smell — by far the best story of the night.

Adams later signed a record deal. “The rest of the story is a big catalogue of songs, some of which you may have heard,” he says. “‘Hats off,’ my late father would say when something went right.” So, hats off to Jim — and thanks for the bus fare.” He then invited Vallance to join him onstage before concluding his speech by thanking his mother (who appears in the video for the album’s title track) and longtime manager Bruce Allen.

The evening concluded with a surprise performance of “Tears Are Not Enough,” a 1985 charity single for famine relief that Vallance, Adams, and Foster co-wrote (and Rachel Paiement). Almost all of the performers from the evening, as well as another 2022 inductee, Murray McLauchlan (inducted at the Mariposa Folk Festival), joined some of the original recording’s performers, including Dan Hill, Jane Siberry, and Andy Kim. Foster played the piano, and Adams sat back to take it all in.

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