Organizers of the 2005 Juno Awards reported that Winnipeggers helped set a record for the fastest Juno Awards ticket sellout on Saturday. Tickets for the April 3rd show were snapped up in a mere sixteen minutes.

According to Melanie Berry, president of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts, “We anticipated a sellout, but this exceeded our expectations. We are very excited by the outstanding support shown by Winnipeggers.”

In 2003 the previous record was set when the event took place from Ottawa’s Corel Centre and featured host Shania Twain. In that year tickets sold out in twenty-one minutes.

This year’s show, from Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, will be hosted by Brent Butt of TV’s Corner Gas and will be televised by CTV. The list of performers includes Neil Young, k.d. Lang, The Tragically Hip, Billy Talent, k-os and Simple Plan.

Topping the list of nominees for the 34th annual Junos is Avril Lavigne with five nominations, including artist of the year, best songwriter and fans’ choice.