Brett Kissel won his first JUNO Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. The award was handed out in Winnipeg Saturday night as the Canadian music industry gathered to toast 35 JUNO Award winners at the 2014 JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards.

Kissel, from Flat Lake, Alberta, was clearly elated with the win as he thanked his music team, family, fans, and the industry.

“This is incredible,” exclaimed Kissel. “I look around at everybody here and I just feel very blessed to be a breakthrough artist.

“Thank you to my parents who took a little time off of calving season back on the farm to be here at the Junos.

“Thank you so much. I’ll never forget this night.”

The Juno win was well deserved for Kissel who is clearly one of the hottest new country artists in Canada. His debut single release in June 2013, “Started With a Song”, made an explosive debut becoming the most added track at Canadian country radio, eclipsing the record previously held by Taylor Swift. The single went to #3 and the video to #1, making Kissel’s debut the highest charting debut single by a Canadian since Mediabase began monitoring the Canadian market in 2004. In October 2013, Warner Music Canada released Kissel’s debut national album “Started with a Song”. Kissel recently completed his first headlining tour that saw him perform 19 dates to packed houses from Vancouver to Charlottetown, and his current single release “3-2-1” with his controversial epic CMT music video, is tearing up the charts.

Fans can catch a glimpse of Kissel’s energetic performing style on the coveted JUNO Awards Broadcast which will air Sunday, March 30 on CTV from Winnipeg’s MTS Centre at 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET.

For more information on Brett Kissel please visit www.brettkissel.com and for the 2014 JUNO Awards or JUNO TV visit www.junoawards.ca.