Lifetime achievement award for Buffy

Folk legend Buffy Sainte-Marie set for music honoursBuffy Sainte-Marie, whose career has taken her from Saskatchewan to Sesame Street to Hollywood, will be presented with a lifetime achievement honour at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards this fall.

Organizers of the 10th annual awards gala made the announcement Monday.

Born on a Saskatchewan reserve, Sainte-Marie, 67, began her career in the 1960s. She is best known for her folk music with lyrics about her aboriginal heritage.

Some of her songs achieved international recognition through other artists, including Elvis Presley, who covered her song Until It's Time For You To Go, and Donovan, who covered her hit Universal Soldier.

Sainte-Marie joined children's television show Sesame Street for a five-year stint beginning in 1976 and, as the show's first aboriginal cast member, she used her music to teach about her culture.

In 1983, Sainte-Marie and her late husband Jack Nitzsche won best original song at the Academy Awards for their song Up Where We Belong from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.

Sainte-Marie, who continues to perform, is an officer of the Order of Canada. She has previously received a host of lifetime achievement distinctions, including joining the Western Canadian Music Awards hall of fame in 2007 and the induction of her song Universal Soldier into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.Comment:  Not because of the song, but An Officer and a Gentleman is one of my all-time favorite movies. Rob's rating: 9.5 of 10.

For more on the subject, see Buffy the Computer Whiz and CIA Suppressed Sainte-Marie's Music.