Tonight is the biggest night in the Canadian music industry, and if Sean Spicer was going to show up like he did last night at the Emmys, he would probably declare the Polaris to be “THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSIC EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH, PERIOD.”
The Polaris Prize, as you probably know by now, is rewarded to the Canadian artist with the best record of the year. The initial long and short lists to reduce the amount of qualified candidates are voted on by the who’s who of the Canadian music industry. Once that happens, a grand jury is selected based on Steve Jordan’s feelings and then they are locked into a bunker at the Carlu to argue it out 12 Angry Men style to determine a winner, once and for all.
This year’s short list is as follows:
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?
Lido Pimienta, La Papessa
Tanya Tagaq, Retribution
Leif Vollebekk, Twin Solitude
Weaves, Weaves
An impressive list of artists, and definitely some that might make for incredible stories for the next day, including:
– Leonard Cohen, getting a posthumous award for his last piece of work (I am assuming he’s not going Tupac on us and releasing 12 mix tapes in the next decade)
– Gord Downie, obviously
– Tanya Tagaq and Feist, each could be the first two time, two time winner
But surely that will not impact the jury who will for sure vote based purely off musical qualities.
The gala will be streamed live on CBC and will feature performances by:
Feist
Lisa Leblanc
Lido Pimienta
Tanya Tagaq
Leif Vollebekk
Weaves
If we are lucky, they might all come onto the stage together and sing “We Are The World”, which would be the best.
Who will win? tune in to find out!