Five Quebecois music acts, whose albums span from avant-garde funk to glitchy club beats, are among the finalists for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize.
Half of this year’s 10 nominees for the $50,000 award, which honours the best album of the year irrespective of genre or sales, have either French-Canadian roots or ties to Quebec.
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Among them are experimentalists Fet.Nat, electronic mixer Marie Davidson and folk-pop singer Elisapie. They represent the strongest showing of Quebecois artists at the Polaris since 2008, when Montreal-based Patrick Watson took home the honour.
Others who made the short list include pop songwriter Jessie Reyez, punk rock band Pup and rap duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids, who lead a roster of artists from Canada’s distinct hip-hop community.
The Polaris winner will be selected by an 11-member jury when it convenes on Sept. 16 for a gala dinner at Toronto’s Carlu. Each runner-up will receive $3,000.
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Previous winners of the Polaris Music Prize include Arcade Fire, Buffy Saint-Marie and last year’s winner, Jeremy Dutcher, among many others.
Here are the nominated artists and respective albums for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize:
Dominique Fils-Aimé — Dominique Fils-Aimé
Elisapie — The Ballad of the Runaway Girl
Fet.Nat — Le Mal
Haviah Mighty — 13th Floor
Jessie Reyez — Being Human in Public
Les Louanges — La Nuit est une Panthère
Marie Davidson — Working Class Woman
Pup — Morbid Stuff
Shad — A Short Story About a War
Snotty Nose Rez Kids — Trapline
—With files from Global News
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