The Reklaws Promise to ‘Soak in Every Moment’ – and Avoid Explosions – as They Host and Perform at the 2023 CCMA AWARDS PRESENTED BY TD

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede The Reklaws realize that being their authentic selves is the most important skill they can bring to the 2023 CCMA AWARDS PRESENTED BY TD. The brother-and-sister duo of Stuart and Jenna Walker, known as The Reklaws, will be kicking off the show with a musical performance, which obviously is in their comfort zone, as they’ve won seven Canadian Country Music Association® awards previously, and they’re nominated for five more this year. But hosting the big event – which airs live from Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre on Saturday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app – is definitely new ground for them. “We are nervous,” Stuart admitted. “So we hired an acting coach. But he was like, ‘you’re not there to be Ryan Seacrest. They didn’t hire Ryan Seacrest. They hired you. So be you, and make them laugh, and just be as real as you possibly can. Because that’s all everybody wants to feel, is that they would know you if you met them in person. So that’s all we’re going to try to do.” Jenna said that while she’s currently feeling the appropriate amount of “natural nerves,” she also wants to make sure that she savours such a special experience. “Yeah, there’s the notion of being able to look back on it and say, ‘oh, that was great’ – I hope that’s the feeling we have when it’s all done,” she explained. “But I also think that we rush through too many things in life. I just want to enjoy all the prepping, and being nervous, and being excited, and the whole process of it, which is just so awesome. Who knows if we’ll ever be able to do something like this again? So to soak in every moment is huge.” When asked to share any special memories from past awards shows that have stuck with them through the years, Stuart and Jenna hilariously pointed to an incident at the 2014 CCMAs, when they were sitting in the audience, albeit not together. “We used to attend the CCMAs – like, we bought one seat in the nosebleeds, and then we’d hope that somebody else we knew had a ticket,” Stuart recalled. “So Jenna ended up with a seat in the front row, and I sat in the nosebleeds. Gord Bamford was playing a song called Where a Farm Used To Be, and every time the word ‘farm’ was said, an explosion of pyro (pyrotechnics) went off, right at the front of the stage. And it wasn’t just fire, it was a super loud BOOM. And even from where I was sitting, way up in the nosebleeds, I could hear Jenna scream so loud!” Jenna added. “I was sitting right beside the fireworks and I screamed! It was like, every time he’d sing, ‘where a farm … ’ it would go off again, and the whole front row would just scream.” Both Stuart and Jenna stressed that the volume of the explosions was very different in the building than it was hearing it on TV. “If you were watching at home, you just saw the fire, and you were like, ‘well, that’s cool,’ ” Stuart said. “You didn’t really hear the explosion, because Gord was sort of taking over most of the sound with his voice. But if you were in the room, you know that it nearly gave 25 people heart attacks.” “It just shook everything,” Jenna said. Speaking of being all shook up, given that it wasn’t so long ago that The Reklaws were experiencing the CCMAs as audience members, it must be a surreal experience for Stuart and Jenna to be hosting the show this year. Despite all the intense preparations that are occurring, and how busy they must be as the big night approaches, have they given themselves a chance to step back and think, ‘wow, what a journey!’ “You’re making me do that right now,” Jenna said. “Stop it, I’m going to cry.” “I’m actually having a flashback to a group that’s no longer together called Autumn Hill,” Stuart said. “We were a bit intimidated by them, because they were a boy-girl duo, and we’re a boy-girl duo, and a lot of people were like, ‘you guys will never be what they are.’ And I remember when we watched them sing, I think they did a tribute song for somebody. And one guy who works with us messaged us, and he was like, ‘one day you might be doing a tribute song on the CCMAs.’ And like you just said, we’re hosting it now? And opening it? We’re so blessed.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv