Former MusiquePlus and MuchMusic host Juliette Powell dies at 54

Former MusiquePlus and MuchMusic host Juliette Powell has died at the age of 54.

Following complications from acute bacterial meningitis, she passed away suddenly on June 3.

She broke barriers in television and moved on to become a tech expert and professor at New York University.

Born in Manhattan in 1970, Powell moved to Montreal at age eight and, while attending Vanier College, she became the first Black woman to be crowned Miss Canada in 1989. Soon after, she joined MusiquePlus.

“Curious is the word that defines Juliette Powell for me. Always wanted to learn more, always wanted to provoke conversation to learn things,” said broadcaster Philippe Fehmiu, who worked with Powell for four years.

As one of the few on-air personalities of colour, she had to endure some racist comments from viewers but she didn’t back down; Fehmiu says she rose up.

“Expressing her African descent in a proud and loud kind of way. And it was important for me because back then, I wasn’t exactly sure about my African background,” he recalled. ”We had interesting discussions about African roots and I learned with these discussion with Juliette.”

Fellow TV personality Genevieve Borne remembers Powell as a powerhouse.

“She was really brilliant. And I think the career she’s had after MusiquePlus was even more representative of what she was because she studied in business. She knew about the financial world. She became an expert in so many things in business,” Borne said.

Over the years, Powell studied at the University of Toronto, McGill and Columbia. She hosted TED Talks, became a media expert; a technology consultant and a business adviser.

In 2009 , Powell published a book on the impact of social media, and communications strategist Martine St-Victor remembers she predicted how it would influence politics.

“It was a natural progression to go from that to AI [artificial intelligence], and also, she was very, very interested in the marriage between technology and ethics. And today you look at what’s going on with AI … But she’s been on that for years and years and years. So she really was at the avant-garde of what we’re dealing with today when we talk about technology.”

In 2023, Powell co-authored a book about the ethics of AI and continued to lead her consulting company and was teaching at NYU.