The Polaris Music Prize has announced the 2021 long list.
Presented by Canada Council for the Arts, a panel of 199 judges (made up of music journalists, broadcasters, and bloggers from across Canada) have decided who has made the next round for deliberation in search for the Polaris Music Prize Winner. The list has been narrowed down from 204 contenders to 40.
Toronto acts that made the list include recent NOW cover stars Mustafa and The OBGMs, Nyssa, Rochelle Jordan, DijahSB, LAL, The Weather Station, Clairmont the Second, Dorothea Paas, Fiver and TOBi.
These 40 albums will then be cut down to 10 in the next round of judging for the short list. Albums in this group will be announced in July in a two-hour special on CBC Music.
A few weeks of deliberation after the short list is released, the top Polaris Music Prize winner will be announced. The album which takes the number-one spot will receive $50,000 and the title of Canadian Album of the Year. The runner-ups (the nine other artists on the Short List) will receive $3,000 each courtesy of Slaight Music.
“In these challenging times, art, now more than ever, has a vital role to play in our collective healing and recovery,” said Carolyn Warren, director general of the Arts Granting Programs Division of the Canada Council for the Arts in a press release for the list. “The power of art endures, and music is an essential need. The Canada Council for the Arts is proud to associate itself with the Polaris Prize in presenting innovative and creative musical works that celebrate the soundtrack of this current moment.”
Last year’s winner was Montreal-based rapper Backxwash. Other notable winners have included Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), and Caribou (2008).
The full 2021 Polaris Music Prize long list:
Art Bergmann – Late Stage Empire Dementia
Bernice – Eau De Bonjourno
The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Theory of Ice
BIG|BRAVE – Vital
Cadence Weapon – Parallel World
Charlotte Cardin – Phoenix
CFCF – memoryland
Clairmont The Second – IT’S NOT HOW IT SOUNDS
Helena Deland – Someone New
DijahSB – Head Above The Waters
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Dominique Fils-Aimé – Three Little Words
Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition – Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition
Thanya Iyer – KIND
Yves Jarvis – Sundry Rock Song Stock
Rochelle Jordan – Play With the Changes
LAL – Meteors Could Come Down
Daniel Lanois – Heavy Sun
Thierry Larose – Cantalou
Russell Louder – Humor
Elliot Maginot – Easy Morning
Mustafa – When Smoke Rises
Laura Niquay – Waska Matisiwin
Nyssa – Girls Like Me
The OBGMs – The Ends
Dorothea Paas – Anything Can’t Happen
Klô Pelgag – Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs
Savannah Ré – Opia
Allison Russell – Outside Child
Julien Sagot – Sagot
Sargeant X Comrade – Magic Radio
Shabason, Krgovich & Harris – Philadelphia
Yu Su – Yellow River Blue
Julian Taylor – The Ridge
TEKE::TEKE – Shirushi
TOBi – ELEMENTS Vol.1
Vagina Witchcraft – Vagina Witchcraft
The Weather Station – Ignorance
Zoon – Bleached Wavves
This story originally appeared in the Georgia Straight.
