2022 Award Winners

With over 1 billion streams to date, two JUNOs and a billboard top ten in three countries – this ear worm continues to be an international mega hit. But the journey to the finished song, wasn’t always a smooth ride.

A trip to Western Africa with the World Vision famine relief organization completely changed Cochrane’s life – and his career. The extreme poverty, violence and death he saw on that trip shook him to his core. “Life is a Highway” was his creative salve to what he witnessed.

And just as the inspiration for the song was extremely personal, so were the conditions of the recording. Most of the vocals on the released track were recorded in Cochrane’s small backyard home studio.

When the song hit the airwaves in 1991 it was an instant hit – topping the charts at number one in Canada and earning Cochrane two JUNO Awards, for Single Of The Year and Songwriter Of The Year. The smash single helped Cochrane’s 1991 Mad Mad World album become his most commercially successful ever, with over a million copies sold in Canada alone.

In the last three decades “Life is a Highway” has had countless covers and adaptions with a giant cultural footprint. Most notably the hugely successful country trio Rascal Flatts for use in the Pixar/Disney animated film Cars – bringing Cochrane’s inspirational words to a whole new generation of young fans.

Adaptions of the song have also appeared in fan favourite television series like: Top Gear, Family Guy and The Office. Hollywood blockbusters like:There Goes the Neighbourhood, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Thelma and Lousie. And even video games like Lego Rock Band.

Cochrane’s lyrics have even transformed the driving experience here in Canada. In 2016, a section of highway in Manitoba was re-named “Tom Cochrane’s Life Is a Highway.” This stretch of road starts in his hometown of Lynn Lake, and ends in the city of Thompson.

With its driving vocals and anthemic chorus, this iconic song continues to encourage listeners that they can get through anything life throws at them. This furiously upbeat song itself continues to be the ultimate pep talk that we’ve so desperately needed these past few years.

It’s been a heck of a ride.

Ozan Yildirim, otherwise known as OZ, has produced for many artists, including Drake, Trippie Redd, and Travis Scott, most notably on “Highest in the Room,” and “Sicko Mode,” both of which he received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song.

In addition to the multiple Grammy nominations, OZ has earned three No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100: Drake’s “Toosie Slide,” and Scott’s “Highest in the Room,” and “Sicko Mode,” and has become a mainstay at the top of Billboard‘s producer and song charts.

In 2020 OZ was awarded several SOCAN Awards including the Breakout Songwriter Award, a Rap Music Award for “Sicko Mode,” and an R&B Award for “24/7”, and this year OZ adds to his SOCAN collection with this acknowledgement of his International Achievements.