10 Questions: Canadian Women in Music Multiple Choice Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. She is the first Canadian female solo artist to reach number one on any U.S. music charts. She also became the first Canadian woman to win a gold record for her 1970 smash hit, "Snowbird". Born in 1945, she had tallied 54 million records sold by 2012 and was still going strong when she retired in 2009 both with the touring and recording ends of her musical success. Who is this widely acclaimed Canadian female artist?

Answer: Anne Murray

Anne Murray, best known for her uplifting ballad, "Snowbird", also became the first female and first Canadian female to win Album of the Year Award. She took that prize at the 1984 Country Music Association Awards for her album titled "A Little Good News".

She is a highly awarded artist whose list of musical accolades include a record 24 Juno Awards(Canada's version of the Grammy), four Grammy Awards, as well as other awards from different genres of musical awards and inclusions in several Halls of Fame.

She also has her own stars on different Walks of Fame.

2. Despite having a "complicated" life and career, this young Canadian female artist has won over 170 musical awards from various world musical agencies in the first decade of this century. Which extremely successful female Canadian musician, who married Chad Kroeger in 2013, am I speaking of?

Answer: Avril Lavigne

There's quite the lineup to choose from yet the in-question hints about a "complicated" lifestyle and being married to Chad Kroeger of Nickelback should have easily steered you to Avril Lavigne. As of 2013, the 29 year-old has surpassed thirty million albums and over fifty million singles sold.

At the young age of twenty-one, she married Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 in 2005, and divorced him a little more than three years later. She married Chad Kroeger of Nickelback on July 1st, 2013, Canada Day. She shows no signs of slowing down in her career and is considered by most music award agencies to be one of the finest singers in the world today.

3. This forty-five year old singer/songwriter from Halifax, Canada, was "surfacing" at the Grammies where she won two awards. One was for "Building A Mystery" in 1998 and another in 2000 for "I Will Remember You". Which musical diva, promoter of the all-female "Lilith Fair" tour, am I alluding to?

Answer: Sarah McLachlan

"Surfacing" was Sarah McClachlan's most successful album well into the 2000s. It took six awards for her in the most recognized North American music awards programs, tow from the Grammy Awards and the top Canadian music awards show, the Junos, garnered four prizes for her. Sarah is a generous philanthropist as well as a major successful singer and recording artist.

In 2008, she opened a free music school in Vancouver for at-risk kids, she is an avid defender of animal rights, a world-wide promoter for Kiwanis, and a long-time supporter of AIDS charities, in addition to several other well-known human rights causes.

4. This lady's breakthrough came in 1993 with her very first album, titled "Time For Mercy". Her second album, from 1994, gave her massive notoriety with the songs "Insensitive" and "Could I Be Your Girl". Whose the Canadian singer/songwriter who released those two songs on her "Living Under June" production?

Answer: Jann Arden

Born Jann Arden Anne Richards in 1962, this lady has enjoyed consistent success throughout her 20+ year career with numerous music awards, guest appearances on several television shows, and acting parts in t.v. series and live theatre such as "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and the highly touted theatre production of "The Vagina Monologues".

She has also toured with Michael Buble and in 2010, shared the carrying of the Olympic torch with him for the Vancouver Winter Games. Jann also was chosen to sing the Canadian National Anthem at the 2006 NBA All-Star game.

5. This lady has enjoyed a fifty year career (so far) and has sang with the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Mamas and Papas, and almost every notable music-related star one could imagine. If you can't guess this singer, then maybe you need a big yellow taxi to take you to Woodstock. Who is this Canadian superstar?

Answer: Joni Mitchell

It was at the age of eight years that Joni Mitchell, born Roberta Joan Anderson, decided she was going to be a singer. Her last name, Mitchell, was taken at her marriage to fellow musician Chuck Mitchell in 1965. What prompted her to make this early decision was the fear she lived with while lying in a hospital bed after contracting polio. Knowing if she got sicker with the disease, which at that time had no vaccine available, then she faced spending the rest of her life in an iron lung across the hall.

After flunking out of grade twelve, never caring for common academics, she embarked on a career in the arts, which she did love. She dabbled in poetry, painting, drawing, and songwriting. At age twenty, she left her Western Canadian upbringing and like so many other young Canadians, headed for Toronto to seek fame and fortune.

As we all know, Joni Mitchell found it.

6. She's Canada's most successful diva not to mention the best-selling female artist in history. Between 1980 and 2013, she recorded fourteen French-language and eleven English-language studio albums. So far in her stellar music career, she has garnered over one hundred and forty music awards from nearly three hundred nominations. Who is this incredibly successful singer/songwriter? (if you don't get this question correct, then I think there's no use completing this quiz - LOL)

Answer: Celine Dion

To inform you of the success that Celine Dion has acquired over the last three decades would take hours and hours of time and pages and pages of writing space. She's won almost every musical award available, not including a Brit Award (sarcasm intended but true), not to mention an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award.

Her first album, "Unison" sprung her into the musical spotlight while her first number one hit single, "The Power of Love" a few years later, assured her of a long and storied career. Adored by fans from every corner of the globe, she is known as an artist who has never failed to please fans and audiences alike.

7. Still married as of 2013 to fellow Canadian singer-songwriter, Marc Jordan, this artist is more known for writing songs for fellow musical artists such as Heart, Aaron Neville, Olivia Newton-John, and Cyndi Lauper to name a few. She does have more than a half dozen studio albums with a couple of her biggest hits being "Love, Pain, the Whole Damn Thing" and "Til You Love Somebody". Which philanthropic Canadian diva is this? (look straight up and you might see the answer)

Answer: Amy Sky

An easy question followed by a tough one. Amy Sky (look straight up as the hint suggests and you will see the 'sky') Amy is a powerful advocate for mental health and has been a spokesperson for The Mood Disorders Association of Ontario, the Canadian Association for Mental Health, as well as other charitable organizations such as Toronto's World-Renowned Hospital for Sick Children, Mothers Against Drunk Driving-MADD, and Covenant House to name just a few.

Her music career continues to be very busy and successful and from 2006-2012 she was partnered with Olivia Newton-John writing most of the songs for John's renewed career as well as accompanying Olivia on many of the songs.

In 2012, Amy returned to her solo career with the release of the studio album, "Alive and Awake", which is accompanied by a website and monthly newsletter dedicated to mental health self care.

8. This musician was married to the man who recordedthe massively successful hit, "Seasons In The Sun". Her career began with a group called Powerline which included her husband and Craig McCaw, and it carried that name for several months until the trio settled on the hugely successful group calling itself, The Poppy Family. Her song, "Which Way You Goin', Billy" brought the band instant success and was followed by two more Billboard hits, "Where Evil Grows" and "That's Where I Went Wrong". She still performs using her now former husband's last name. Who is this lady whose career has surpassed five decades in the music business?

Answer: Susan Jacks

How many remember Susan Jack's husband, Terry Jacks, warbling the melancholy hit song with the lyrics, "we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun...?" She had divorced Terry after ten years and remarried CFL player, Ted Dushinski, who passed away in 2004 from lung cancer.

This was especially difficult for her as she, herself, had been diagnosed with kidney failure soon after her husband Ted's diagnosis of cancer. But fate changed quickly when her brother Billy, subject of her most famous song,"Which Way You Goin' Billy?", stepped forward and donated one of his own kidneys to Susan.

The transplant which came a year after Ted's death, was a complete success and as of 2013, she continues to tour at the age of sixty-five.

9. Despite having more than twenty-five studio albums accredited to her, this Canadian Native Cree woman's most successful record in Canada was her 1992 "Coincidence and Likely Stories" which only reached number 63 on the Canadian record charts. It is her continuing work for the indigenous peoples of America that brings her world fame. Still performing into her seventies, which tireless and proud native singer/songwriter am I referring to?

Answer: Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie would likely have many more singles and albums higher on the charts, but since her focus in her long career was life betterment for native men and women in North America, alas, for all indigenous peoples all over the world, her music was often overlooked in lieu of the endless work and accomplishments regarding justice and rights for all native people.

Her six+ decades career continues to this day. Some of the associated acts she has been involved with during this tenure in music and human rights includes Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Ron Sexsmith, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Anne Murray, and this list is endless.

10. It's really sad that this incredible-voiced woman is more recognized because of her size and physical deformity than her incomparable ability to sing and entertain. Those who have had the good fortune to see her in concert, listen to her awesome ability to sing, and see her overcome shyness and judgementalism quickly became fans and lovers of her musical talent. Which lark-voiced talent, famous for songs about hard-working miners, am I speaking of?

Answer: Rita MacNeil

Rita MacNeil passed away in April, 2013, and I for one felt ashamed to be a Canadian that day due to the unremarkable reporting of her death. For those who shed many tears listening to her croon about hard-working Canadian miners who lost their lives in underground mines while providing for their families, she was loved dearly and will be sorrowfully missed for years to come.

Born with a severe cleft palate, she always suffered from a serious problem with obesity and incapacitating shyness and self-deprecation, Rita somehow managed to overcome her issues and went on to find her inner goodness and enjoy a much-deserved successful career. Through her music and songwriting, she was able to find peace within her heart that showed itself every time she picked up a microphone so she could share her beauty through songs of personal triumph and tragedy with many others who suffered the same pointing fingers and undeserved judgement that she was forced to endure throughout her sixty-eight years.

Another side of her love for Canada and the down-to-earth folks from the east coast could be shared at one of her gorgeous love-decorated tearooms she ran, starting with the one in her hometown of Big Pond, Nova Scotia. I had the privilege of having a cup of tea with Miss MacNeil at her tearoom in Big Pond and I can say with complete honesty that I'd choose to sit and have tea with this incredible example of decency in women than all of the famous tea drinkers of the world, put together. She and her alluring smile, will be grievously missed in the years to come. What she may have lacked in visual beauty was made up many times over by her inner strength and unconditional love she gave to all who were welcomed at the door of her tearooms and in the sellout crowds of fans who flocked to feel what true beauty was all about. RIP Miss Rita MacNeil. The world lost hugely on the day you went to meet your beloved maker.

Source: Author mayneeyak

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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10 Questions: Canadian Women in Music Multiple Choice Quiz | Music

There's dozens of great male musicians and bands from Canada. There's a huge list of quality female Canadian artists, too. I wrote the quiz as it's time these under-rated Canadian women of music gain the positive notoriety they deserve.

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