Polaris Music Prize

Polaris Music Prize
Current: 2023 Polaris Music Prize
Awarded for	Best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label.
Country	Canada
First awarded	2006
Website	polarismusicprize.ca

The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was increased to $30,000 for the 2011 award. In May 2015, the Polaris Music Prize was increased to $50,000, an additional $20,000, sponsored by Slaight Music. Additionally, second place prizes for the nine other acts on the Short List increased from $2,000 to $3,000. Polaris officials also announced The Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an award that "will annually honour five albums from the five decades before Polaris launched in 2006." Details about the selection process for this prize are still to be revealed.

The Polaris Music Prize is modeled after the United Kingdom/Ireland's Mercury Prize and in turn, inspired the Atlantis Music Prize/Borealis Music Prize for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Jury and selection process

There is no submission process or entry fee for the Polaris Music Prize. Jurors select what they consider the five best Canadian albums released in the previous year. The ballots are tabulated with each number one pick awarded five points, a number two pick awarded four points and so on. A long list of 40 titles is classified, released in mid-June and promoted to the public. The long list is then sent back to the jury. The jurors then re-submit five top picks from this long list.

These ballots are re-tabulated and the top ten titles form the Polaris short list. This list is released in early July and promoted to the public. A smaller group of 11 jury members ("The Grand Jury") who convene in Toronto at the Polaris Music Prize gala in late September decide the ultimate winner. The decision is finalized during the gala as the nominated bands perform. Grand jurors are selected so that each shortlisted album has one person in the jury room to advocate for it; ten are selected on the basis of having named one of the shortlisted albums as their top pick in the balloting, while the remaining jury position is given to a person who did not vote for any of the shortlisted albums at all.

Polaris Music Prize board of directors selects the jurors. The jury list includes more than 200 Canadian music journalists, bloggers, and broadcasters. To ensure an impartial outcome, no one with direct financial relationships with artists is eligible to become a jury member. The organization itself is a registered, not-for-profit corporation. Another key benefit of enlisting music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers as judges is that increased media coverage draws attention to quality music in a cluttered commercial landscape and an increasingly fractured music scene.

Notable jurors have included former MuchMusic VJs Hannah Sung and Hannah Simone, and Toronto Star music columnist Ben Rayner. Some of the 2018 judges include Lana Gay (Indie88), Mike Bell (YYSCENE), Stuart Derdeyn (Vancouver Province), Stephen Cooke (The Chronicle Herald), Brad Wheeler (The Globe and Mail), Alan Ranta (Exclaim!), Alan Cross (102.1 the edge), CBC Radio personalities Sandra Sperounes, Melody Lau, Lisa Christiansen and Raina Douris and Mitch Pollock, Voir music journalists Patrick Baillargeon and Olivier Boisvert-Magnen, Kimberly Cleave (APTN/Digital Drum) and Carl Wilson.

On November 3, 2014, Jian Ghomeshi, the disgraced former CBC Q host and host of the first Polaris Gala, was removed from the Polaris juror pool. Polaris officials made no official announcement on the subject.

Polaris winners and short list nominees

Year	Winner	Shortlisted Nominees & Albums
2006 (1st)	Final Fantasy – He Poos Clouds	Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene Cadence Weapon – Breaking Kayfabe The Deadly Snakes – Porcella Sarah Harmer – I'm a Mountain K'naan – The Dusty Foot Philosopher Malajube – Trompe-l'oeil Metric – Live It Out The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
2007 (2nd)	Patrick Watson – Close to Paradise	Arcade Fire – Neon Bible The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse The Dears – Gang of Losers Julie Doiron – Woke Myself Up Feist – The Reminder Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye Miracle Fortress – Five Roses Joel Plaskett Emergency – Ashtray Rock Chad VanGaalen – Skelliconnection
2008 (3rd)	Caribou – Andorra	Black Mountain – In the Future Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling Kathleen Edwards – Asking for Flowers Holy Fuck – LP Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue Shad – The Old Prince Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War Two Hours Traffic – Little Jabs The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour
2009 (4th)	Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life	Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels Hey Rosetta! – Into Your Lungs K'naan – Troubadour Malajube – Labyrinthes Metric – Fantasies Joel Plaskett – Three Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms
2010 (5th)	Karkwa – Les Chemins de verre	The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record Caribou – Swim Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice Owen Pallett – Heartland Radio Radio – Belmundo Regal The Sadies – Darker Circles Shad – TSOL Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
2011 (6th)	Arcade Fire – The Suburbs	Austra – Feel It Break Braids – Native Speaker Destroyer – Kaputt Galaxie – Tigre et diésel Hey Rosetta! – Seeds Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges Timber Timbre – Creep on Creepin' On The Weeknd – House of Balloons
2012 (7th)	Feist – Metals	Cadence Weapon – Hope in Dirt City Cold Specks – I Predict a Graceful Expulsion Drake – Take Care Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur Fucked Up – David Comes to Life Grimes – Visions Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital Japandroids – Celebration Rock Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – YT//ST
2013 (8th)	Godspeed You! Black Emperor – 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!	Zaki Ibrahim – Every Opposite Metric – Synthetica METZ – METZ Purity Ring – Shrines Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation Whitehorse – The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss Young Galaxy – Ultramarine
2014 (9th)	Tanya Tagaq – Animism	Arcade Fire – Reflektor Basia Bulat – Tall Tall Shadow Mac DeMarco – Salad Days Drake – Nothing Was the Same Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back Owen Pallett – In Conflict Shad – Flying Colours Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – UZU
2015 (10th)	Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power in the Blood	Alvvays – Alvvays BadBadNotGood & Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul Braids – Deep in the Iris Caribou – Our Love Jennifer Castle – Pink City Drake – If You're Reading This It's Too Late Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers Viet Cong – Viet Cong
2016 (11th)	Kaytranada – 99.9%	Black Mountain, IV Basia Bulat, Good Advice Grimes, Art Angels Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION Jessy Lanza, Oh No PUP, The Dream Is Over Andy Shauf, The Party U.S. Girls, Half Free White Lung, Paradise
2017 (12th)	Lido Pimienta – La Papessa	A Tribe Called Red, We Are the Halluci Nation BADBADNOTGOOD, IV Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker Gord Downie, Secret Path Feist, Pleasure Lisa LeBlanc, Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen? Tanya Tagaq, Retribution Leif Vollebekk, Twin Solitude Weaves, Weaves
2018 (13th)	Jeremy Dutcher – Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa	Alvvays, Antisocialites Jean-Michel Blais, Dans ma main Daniel Caesar, Freudian Pierre Kwenders, MAKANDA at the End of Space, the Beginning of Time Hubert Lenoir, Darlène Partner, In Search of Lost Time Snotty Nose Rez Kids, The Average Savage U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited Weaves, Wide Open
2019 (14th)	Haviah Mighty – 13th Floor	Marie Davidson, Working Class Woman Elisapie, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl FET.NAT, Le Mal Dominique Fils-Aimé, Stay Tuned! Les Louanges, La nuit est une panthère PUP, Morbid Stuff Jessie Reyez, Being Human in Public Shad, A Short Story About a War Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Trapline
2020 (15th)	Backxwash – God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It	Caribou, Suddenly Jessie Reyez, Before Love Came to Kill Us Junia-T, Studio Monk Kaytranada, Bubba Lido Pimienta, Miss Colombia Nêhiyawak, nipiy Pantayo, Pantayo U.S. Girls, Heavy Light Witch Prophet, DNA Activation
2021 (16th)	Cadence Weapon – Parallel World	DijahSB, Head Above the Waters Dominique Fils-Aimé, Three Little Words Klô Pelgag, Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Theory of Ice Mustafa, When Smoke Rises The OBGMs, The Ends The Weather Station, Ignorance TOBi, ELEMENTS Vol. 1 Zoon, Bleached Wavves
2022 (17th)	Pierre Kwenders – José Louis and the Paradox of Love	Shortlist announced in July 2022. Destroyer, Labyrinthitis Lisa Leblanc, Chiac Disco Hubert Lenoir, PICTURA DE IPSE : Musique directe Kelly McMichael, Waves OMBIIGIZI, Sewn Back Together Ouri, Frame of a Fauna Shad, Tao Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Life After Charlotte Day Wilson, Alpha
2023 (18th)	Debby Friday – Good Luck	Alvvays, Blue Rev Aysanabee, Watin Begonia, Powder Blue Daniel Caesar, Never Enough Feist, Multitudes Gayance, Mascarade Dan Mangan, Being Somewhere The Sadies, Colder Streams Snotty Nose Rez Kids, I'm Good, HBU?

Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize

In 2015, the Polaris jury also launched the Polaris Heritage Prize now known as the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an annual award program to honour classic Canadian albums released prior to the creation of the Polaris Prize. Since its inception, the voting categories for Heritage Prize-nominated albums as well as the number of designated albums declared each year have changed multiple times.

In the first year, the Heritage Prizes were awarded in the categories 1960s–70s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000–2005, selected by public vote from a shortlist of five nominees put forward by a Heritage Prize jury. In the second year, the process and categories were revised with the initial shortlists increased to 10, the categories shifted to 1960–75, 1976–85, 1986–1995 and 1996–2005, and the addition of a second prize to be selected by a critical jury alongside the winner of the public vote. The purpose of the jury award is to ensure that albums which were artistically important, but not necessarily as commercially popular, still have a fair shot at being selected as winners; to ensure that two different albums are selected, however, the jury does not meet to vote on its choice until after the popular vote winner has been determined.

Between 2015–18, non-winning nominees in a Heritage Prize category were renominated again, reincorporating all of the non-winning nominees from the previous year, with only the winning albums replaced by new titles. In 2019 Polaris chose to do away with the four time period format, reducing the total number of nominated albums from 40 to 12 and putting those 12 albums in one single category with no separation by time period. There was one public vote album winner and one jury vote winner in 2019. Non-winning albums can still be renominated in a future year, although the shortlists have shown increased variability since the category reduction.

Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize winners

Year	Winner	Category
2015	Joni Mitchell – Blue	1960-70s
	Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session	1980s
	Sloan – Twice Removed	1990s
	Peaches – The Teaches of Peaches	2000–05
2016	Neil Young – After the Gold Rush	1960–75 public vote
	Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen	1960–75 jury vote
	Rush – Moving Pictures	1976–85 public vote
	Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Kate & Anna McGarrigle	1976–85 jury vote
	Blue Rodeo – Five Days in July	1986–95 public vote
	Mary Margaret O'Hara – Miss America	1986–95 jury vote
	Arcade Fire – Funeral	1996–2005 public vote
	Lhasa de Sela – La Llorona	1996–2005 jury vote
2017	Gordon Lightfoot – Lightfoot!	1960–75 public vote
	The Band – The Band	1960–75 jury vote
	Harmonium – L'Heptade	1976–85 public vote
	Glenn Gould – The Goldberg Variations	1976–85 jury vote
	The Tragically Hip – Fully Completely	1986–95 public vote
	Eric's Trip – Love Tara	1986–95 jury vote
	Feist – Let It Die	1996–2005 public vote
	k-os – Joyful Rebellion	1996–2005 jury vote
2018	Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere	1960–75 public vote
	Jean-Pierre Ferland – Jaune	1960–75 jury vote
	Rush – 2112	1976–85 public vote
	Bruce Cockburn – Stealing Fire	1976–85 jury vote
	Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill	1986–95 public vote
	Dream Warriors – And Now the Legacy Begins	1986–95 jury vote
	Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People	1996–2005 public vote
	Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome	1996–2005 jury vote
2019	D.O.A. – Hardcore 81	public vote
	Oscar Peterson Trio – Night Train	jury vote
2020	Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Keyboard Fantasies	public vote
	Main Source – Breaking Atoms	jury vote (tie)
	Buffy Sainte-Marie – It's My Way!
2021	Nomeansno – Wrong	public vote
	Faith Nolan – Africville	jury vote
2022	SNFU – ...And No One Else Wanted to Play	public vote
	Four the Moment – We're Still Standing	jury vote

Ceremonies

The 2018 Polaris sponsors include the CBC, the Government of Canada, FACTOR, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Slaight Communications, Radio Starmaker Fund, SiriusXM, Stingray Music/Galaxie, The Carlu, Shure Canada, Toronto radio station Indie88, SOCAN, and Re-Sound20. Past sponsors have included Rogers Communications and Scion.

The Polaris Music Prize gala is video streamed live on CBC Music and, previously, AUX.

Presentation venues

• Phoenix Concert Theatre 2006–2008
• Masonic Temple 2009–2012
• The Carlu 2013–present

Controversies

The Polaris Music Prize can be the subject of intense scrutiny from fans, media and music industry insiders. A number of recurring debates have emerged throughout Polaris' history. Some of these include: perception the prize is either too "indie" or too "mainstream," concern about gender balance amongst nominees and jurors, concern about racial balance amongst nominees and jurors, concern about geographical representation amongst nominees and jurors, and concern about fair representation of specific musical genres. These topics are discussed at length during the open-to-the-public "Polaris Salons" which usually feature Polaris jurors as panellists in various cities across North America during the lead-up to each year's Polaris Gala.

Polaris Prize winners are often the centre of specific controversies as well.

• 2009: Publishing the words "Fucked Up." When Fucked Up won in 2009 many mainstream media outlets were forced to wrestle with how they would present the band's name. The Canoe.ca news service used the headline "F***** Up (language alert , language alert below) wins the 2009 Polaris Music Prize on Monday night," The Globe and Mail went with "Toronto hardcore band wins Polaris Music Prize," while The New Yorker's "The Prize That Dare Not Speak Its Name" monitored what they called "semantic yoga."
• 2013: Godspeed You! Black Emperor refused to attend the 2013 Polaris gala. When the band won for their album Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, representatives from their label Constellation Records accepted the $30,000 prize on their behalf. Constellation's Don Wilkie said in a statement, "Godspeed will use the prize money to purchase musical instruments for, and support organizations providing music lessons to, people incarcerated within the Quebec prison system." The next day the band released their own statement, saying "holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do" and that "maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords." This was also the first year the Polaris winners were not presented with what had up until that point been a traditional giant novelty cheque to represent their victory. The presenting of the giant novelty cheque has since been discontinued.
• 2014: During Tanya Tagaq's victory speech she declared "Fuck PETA," in reference to the organization for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Tagaq also used her gala performance and post-Polaris victory interviews as a platform to discuss the instances of missing and murdered Aboriginal women across Canada.
• 2017: Lido Pimienta's acceptance speech was capped with an unexpected, obscenity-spiked outburst about her monitors being off during her performance. "All of my f**king monitors were off," Pimienta shouted into the microphone at the end of the show, which was webcast by the CBC. Earlier she performed two songs live. "I could not hear myself when I was up here. I’m f**king pissed off. Thank you though, mother f**ker."

Polaris Prize music releases

In 2006, compilation CD/souvenir program guides featuring one song each from every shortlisted artist were given out at the Polaris Gala. The same was done in 2007 with all shortlisted artists contributing to the compilation CD except Arcade Fire. Between 2008 and 2011, the souvenir program guides instead included download cards for recipients to obtain one song from each of the shortlisted artists.

Polaris began releasing promotional split seven-inch singles beginning in 2012 which were separate from the souvenir program guides. These singles were often given away through campaigns with independent record stores, via contests, at Polaris Salons, or at Polaris Galas.

In recent years, the Polaris Prize has also sponsored a series of promotional singles involving nominated or winning musicians. The "Polaris Cover Sessions" series features past nominees recording a cover of a song by another nominee or Heritage Prize winner, while the "Polaris Collaboration Sessions" series features two past nominees collaborating on new original songs.

2012

• Grimes "Genesis" + Handsome Furs "Serve The People" on grey vinyl
• Kathleen Edwards "Going to Hell" + Cold Specks "Blank Maps" on white vinyl
• Japandroids "The House That Heaven Built" + Cadence Weapon "Conditioning" on yellow vinyl
• Fucked Up "What Would You Do (For Veronica)?" + YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN "Queens" on orange-red vinyl

Feist and Drake did not participate.

2013

• Tegan And Sara "I Was A Fool" + A Tribe Called Red "The Road ft. Black Bear" on orange vinyl
• Zaki Ibrahim "Draw The Line" + Whitehorse "Achilles' Desire" on white vinyl
• Purity Ring "Fineshrine" + Colin Stetson "High Above A Grey Green Sea" on purple vinyl
• Metric "Dreams So Real" + Young Galaxy "Pretty Boy" on blue vinyl
• METZ "Get Off" on yellow vinyl

Godspeed You! Black Emperor did not participate.

2014

• YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN "Windflower" + Tanya Tagaq "Umingmak" on white vinyl
• Shad "Progress (Part 1: American Pie)" + Mac DeMarco "Brother" on red/orange vinyl
• Owen Pallett "The Riverbed" + Arcade Fire "Normal Person" on blue vinyl
• Basia Bulat "Never Let Me Go" + Timber Timbre "Grand Canyon" on yellow vinyl
• Jessy Lanza "Move Closer" (previously physically unreleased) on "trippy pattern" grey vinyl

Drake did not participate.

2015

Polaris Cover Sessions No. 1 (2015) [10 inch]

• Sarah Harmer, "Odessa" (Caribou)
• Whitehorse, "The Bones of an Idol" (The New Pornographers)
• Great Lake Swimmers, "I'm a Mountain" (Sarah Harmer)

2016

Polaris Cover Sessions No. 2 (2016) [10 inch]

• Arkells, "I Am Not Afraid" (Owen Pallett)
• Zaki Ibrahim, "Show Me the Place" (Leonard Cohen)
• Joel Plaskett, "Bittersweet Melodies" (Feist)

2017

Polaris Cover Sessions No. 3 (2017) [10 inch]

• Little Scream, "Anew Day" (Mary Margaret O’Hara)
• Hannah Georgas, "Crown of Love" (Arcade Fire)
• Les soeurs Boulay, "Complainte pour Ste-Catherine" (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)

2018

Polaris Cover Sessions No. 4 (2018) [10 inch]

• Jean-Michel Blais, "Mushaboom" (Feist)
• Weaves, "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" (Arcade Fire)
• Lindi Ortega, "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen)

2019

Polaris Cover Sessions No. 5 (2019) [12 inch]

• Faith Healer, "When You Awake" (The Band)
• Partner, "Limelight" (Rush)
• Pierre Kwenders, "It Ain't Fair" (Jean-Pierre Ferland)

Polaris collaboration sessions

Polaris, the Banff Centre and Scion Sessions teamed up for a collaborative residency project featuring past shortlisted artists Shad and Holy Fuck. The result was the Scion Sessions-sponsored Holy Shad "Legend of Cy Borg Parts I and II" seven-inch single as well as a documentary video produced by AUX TV.

In 2017, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq collaborated on the single "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)". A remix of the song by A Tribe Called Red was commissioned for the seven-inch release. The song was subsequently included on Sainte-Marie's album Medicine Songs.

In 2019, The Weather Station and Jennifer Castle came together to record a two-song split-single. The Weather Station's song was "I Tried To Wear The World (featuring Jennifer Castle)" and Castle's was "Midas Touch (featuring The Weather Station)."

See also

• Canadian rock
• Choice Music Prize (Ireland)
• Mercury Music Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland)
• Australian Music Prize (Australia)
• Prix Constantin (France)
• Shortlist Prize (United States)
• Nordic Music Prize (Nordic countries)