Downie, Cohen, Feist are Polaris finalists
An array of mainstream artists, Indigenous acts and rising stars comprise this year’s slate of Polaris Music Prize nominees.
Among the 10 contenders revealed Thursday for the $50,000 award, which goes to the best album from a Canadian artist or band, are Gord Downie’s Secret Path project, Leonard Cohen’s final studio effort You Want It Darker and Feist’s Pleasure.
The Polaris winner is chosen by a large team of journalists, broadcasters and bloggers, irrespective of genre or sales. The winner will be announced on Sept. 18 at a gala presentation held at Toronto’s Carlu. A webcast will be hosted by CBC Music and Aux.tv.
Besides Downie, whose Secret Path interprets the true story of Chanie Wenjack, a young boy who died while trying to escape a residential school, other nominees giving voice to Indigenous issues include A Tribe Called Red’s We Are The Halluci Nationand Retribution by Tanya Tagaq, who won the Polaris in 2014.
While the Juno Awards were criticized for a lack of female nominees, the Polaris jury has covered a lot of territory with its selections, including New Brunswick-raised Lisa LeBlanc for Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen?; Colombian immigrant Lido Pimienta for Spanish album La Papessa; and female-led indie pop band Weaves for their selftitled debut.
Other nominees include electronic-jazz quartet Badbadnotgood (also shortlisted in 2015) for their fourth album, IV, which features a track with last year’s Polaris winner Kaytranada, and Leif Vollebekk’s Twin Solitude.
Albums from global superstars Drake and The Weeknd were both selected for the long list unveiled last month, but neither made the final cut. Other prominent acts whose albums were left off the final list include Arkells, Carly Rae Jepsen, Japandroids, Mac DeMarco, the New Pornographers and the Tragically Hip.