TORONTO — Arcade Fire’s Reflektor, Drake’s Nothing Was The Same and Owen Pallett’s In Conflict have been named to the short list for this year’s Polaris Music Prize.
The annual prize is awarded to the best Canadian album of the prior year as selected by a jury of journalists, bloggers and broadcasters across Canada.
The winner of the $30,000 prize will be announced Sept. 22 at a gala at The Carlu in Toronto. Those who do not win each receive $2,000.
The short list of 10 was announced Tuesday in Toronto by actor Jay Baruchel, who will host the gala.
Also vying for the prize this year are London, Ont.-born rapper Shad (for Flying Colours), Toronto musician Basia Bulat (Tall, Tall Shadow), Nunavut’s Tanya Tagaq (Animism), Ontario’s Timber Timbre (Hot Dreams), Montreal/Toronto act YAMANTAKA (Uzu), B.C.-born/Montreal-based Mac DeMarco (Salad Days) and Hamilton, Ont.’s Jessy Lanza (Pull My Hair Back).
The acts were selected from a long list of 41 that was revealed in June.
Last year’s Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Godspeed You! Black Emperor for its fourth album, Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!.
The experimental Montreal collective publicly criticized the event.
“Holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do,” read a message on the band’s website. “Organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.”
The band vowed to use the prize money to create a program to provide musical instruments to prisoners in Quebec.
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