Hayley Gene Penner, writer on Lily Allen's West End Girl, up for Junos songwriter award

Hayley Gene Penner is photographed at her home in Winnipeg, on Monday, March 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kendra Penner

Hayley Gene Penner was a kid the first time she held a Juno Award. It was one of her father’s.

“I was giving a fake acceptance speech and I dropped it,” she recalls.

“I busted my toe with a Juno.”

Her dad, the beloved Canadian children’s entertainer Fred Penner, would stack his awards — eventually four in total — on the family piano in their Winnipeg home.

Now, she’s up for a Juno of her own. Penner will compete for songwriter of the year, non-performer, at this weekend’s awards.

“I started crying,” she says of the nod.

“I grew up looking at the Junos, and my dad has won several, so it was always a thing in my head, this award. I’ve gone a few times as his plus one, just sort of in his shadow.”

Her nomination recognizes a breakout year in the studio trenches, writing for artists including Lily Allen, Teddy Swims and Celeste.

But Penner says the role of a songwriter — now in just its second year as a Juno category for non-performers — remains widely misunderstood.

“There are so many incredible writers who shape and contribute to so many huge artists’ careers, but the nature of it is behind the scenes,” says Penner.

She’s up against singer-songwriter Mustafa, Justin Bieber collaborator Tobias Jesso Jr., David Guetta hitmaker Nathan Ferraro and last year’s winner, Elizabeth Lowell Boland.

Though music was always a constant — from choirs to a teenage a cappella group — Penner says she “tripped and fell into” songwriting. After high school, she hosted a kids’ show at CBC before a breakup prompted her to take a magazine gig in the U.K. While there, a friend invited her to Sweden to join some professional songwriting sessions.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I guess this is a thing that you can do.’”

That realization led her to Los Angeles in the early 2010s where she started songwriting for various artists as part of a production team.

“It was like six years of a boot camp,” she said.

“So much of the music industry is about the hang. How hard can you hang? How long can you hang?” says Penner, who recounted her experiences in the business on her 2020 debut album “People You Follow” and its companion memoir.

Her career began to shift when she found a new circle of collaborators, many of them women, who transformed how she understood the work.

“It changed my whole life,” says Penner, who began writing for female artists such as Lennon Stella and Charlotte Lawrence. “I was like, ‘Oh, these feel like sisters to me. I don’t feel like I’m trying to prove something.’”

Nowadays, she approaches songwriting as a fluid, collaborative process that requires reading the room — sometimes stepping forward, sometimes holding back.

That was especially true working with Allen, who recorded her album “West End Girl” in Los Angeles last year. The LP suggests her marriage to actor David Harbour broke down after they agreed to try non-monogamy.

“She was just so clear on what she wanted to say, even amidst what this record’s about — their marriage and the falling apart of it,” shares Penner, who co-wrote the title track and “Ruminate.”

“Lily just felt ready to tell this story. She was not afraid to tell the truth of her experience.”

Penner says the songs came together in real time — sitting with Allen, strumming guitar and humming melodies alongside the producers, while contributing to a shared note of lyrics. She describes her role as part collaborator, part sounding board, part therapist.

“I’ve never been married. I’ve never gone through a divorce that’s so in the public eye,” she says.

“You have to walk a fine line of relating, but also just hearing them and being like, ‘That sucks.’”

Other collaborations, like Swims’ “Small Hands,” unfolded “campfire style” — a group gathered around a guitar, singing, harmonizing and building out the song.

“We were writing it as a concept but all connecting with it. Teddy was like, ‘If I ever become a parent, I’m going to put this out,’” Penner says.

“Then a couple of years later, it comes out when I’m pregnant.”

Penner plans to walk the Junos red carpet carrying her two-month-old daughter, a milestone made all the more moving by her childhood.

“A really significant part of my upbringing was seeing both of my parents as these creative forces in the world,” she reflects, noting the influence of her mother, choreographer Odette Heyn.

If she gets a real-deal Juno, Penner promises no foot casualties.

The kicker is, in some ways, she’s already won.

“I want my daughter to see her mother as a working creative person, so this is really meaningful to me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press