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.
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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