Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year

The Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year is presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to the best new musical group in Canada. The award has been given annually since 1974, and was previously called Most Promising Group of the Year (1974–1993), Best New Group (1994–2002), and New Group of the Year (2003–2012). The award was customarily presented by the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The award was discontinued following the Juno Awards of 2024. At the following Juno Awards of 2025, it was merged with the sibling category for Breakthrough Artist of the Year into a single category for Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year.

Recipients

Most Promising Group of the Year (1974–1993)

Year	Winner	Nominees	Refs.
1974	Bachman-Turner Overdrive	Bearfoot Chester Scrubbaloe Caine Wednesday	[1]
1975	Rush	Beau Dommage Greaseball Boogie Band Mahogany Rush Ville Émard Blues Band	[2]
1976	Myles & Lenny	Aut'Chose Bond Heart Maneige	[3]
1977	THP Orchestra	Garfield Moxy Sweeney Todd Trooper	[4]
1978	Hometown Band	Black Light Orchestra Jackson Hawke Max Webster Prism	[5]
1979	Doucette	Max Webster Streetheart Teaze Zon	[6]
1980	Streetheart	FM The Minglewood Band Teaze The Raes	[7]
1981	Powder Blues	Loverboy Martha & the Muffins Red Rider Toronto	[8]
1982	Saga	Goddo Martha & the Muffins Red Rider The Kings	[9]
1983	Payola$	Doug & the Slugs Headpins Spoons Strange Advance	[10]
1984	The Parachute Club	Honeymoon Suite Men Without Hats Platinum Blonde The Nylons	[11]
1985	Idle Eyes	Images in Vogue Rational Youth The Arrows The Box	[12]
1986	Glass Tiger	Cats Can Fly Chalk Circle Eye Eye One to One	[13]
1987	Frozen Ghost	Eight Seconds Haywire Nuance The Partland Brothers	[14]
No award ceremony was held in 1988
1989	Barney Bentall & The Legendary Hearts	54-40 The Jitters The Northern Pikes The Pursuit of Happiness	[15]
1990	The Tragically Hip	Brighton Rock Indio Paradox Sons of Freedom	[16]
1991	Leslie Spit Treeo	Bootsauce Crash Vegas National Velvet Spirit of the West	[17]
1992	Infidels	The Rankin Family West End Girls World on Edge Young Saints	[18]
1993	Skydiggers	Lost & Profound Pure Slik Toxik Sven Gali	[19]

Best New Group (1994–2002)

Year	Winner	Nominees	Refs.
1994	The Waltons	Moxy Früvous Junkhouse Sloan The Odds The Tea Party	[20]
1995	Moist	Big Sugar Farmer's Daughter The Gandharvas Wild Strawberries	[21]
1996	Philosopher Kings	Hemingway Corner Rainbow Butt Monkeys Rymes with Orange Sandbox	[22]
1997	The Killjoys	Limblifter Pluto Starkicker Victor	[23]
1998	Leahy	Bran Van 3000 Matthew Good Band The Age of Electric Wide Mouth Mason	[24]
1999	Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra	Love Inc. New Meanies The Moffats The Wilkinsons	[25]
2000	Sky	Gob Len Prozzäk Serial Joe	[26]
2001	Nickelback	b4-4 Kittie Sum 41 Templar	[27]
2002	Default	Joydrop Smoother Sugar Jones Wave	[28]

New Group of the Year (2003–2012)

Year	Winner	Nominees	Refs.
2003	Theory of a Deadman	Bet.e & Stef Crush One Ton Simple Plan	[29]
2004	Billy Talent	Lillix The Dears The Trews Three Days Grace	[30]
2005	Alexisonfire	Death From Above The Marble Index The Waking Eyes Thornley	[31]
2006	Bedouin Soundclash	Boys Night Out Hedley Pocket Dwellers Silverstein	[32]
2007	Mobile	Evans Blue Idle Sons Jets Overhead Stabilo	[33]
2008	Wintersleep	Dragonette Faber Drive illScarlett State of Shock	[34]
2009	The Stills	Beast Cancer Bats Crystal Castles Plants and Animals	[35]
2010	Arkells	Down With Webster Stereos Ten Second Epic The New Cities	[36]
2011	Said the Whale	Die Mannequin Hollerado Misteur Valaire My Darkest Days	[37]
2012	The Sheepdogs	Braids Hey Rosetta! Mother Mother The Rural Alberta Advantage	[38]

Breakthrough Group of the Year (2013–2024)

Year	Winner	Nominees	Refs.
2013	Monster Truck	Hey Ocean! The Pack A.D. Walk Off the Earth Yukon Blonde	[39]
2014	A Tribe Called Red	Autumn Hill Born Ruffians Courage My Love July Talk	[40]
2015	Magic!	Adventure Club Alvvays USS Zeds Dead	[41]
2016	Dear Rouge	The Elwins Half Moon Run Milk & Bone Young Empires	[42]
2017	The Dirty Nil	Bleeker Cold Creek County Bob Moses The Zolas	[43]
2018	The Beaches	James Barker Band The Dead South The Franklin Electric The Jerry Cans	[44]
2019	The Washboard Union	88Glam Dizzy Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine Loud Luxury	[45]
2020	Neon Dreams	The Blue Stones Hunter Brothers Palaye Royale Valley	[46]
2021	Crown Lands	2Frères Manila Grey Peach Pit Young Bombs	[47]
2022	Monowhales	Black Pistol Fire Cleopatrick Ocie Elliott Spiritbox	[48]
2023	Banx & Ranx	Harm & Ease Rare Americans Tommy Lefroy Wild Rivers	[49]
2024	New West	Busty and the Bass Crash Adams Good Kid Men I Trust	[50]