2019 Polaris Music Prize Long List Announced

By FYI Staff

The Polaris Music Prize, presented by CBC Music, has unveiled the 40 albums on the 2019 Long List. This year’s Long List is presented by Canada Council for the Arts.

The announcements came at a Polaris event at The Forks in Winnipeg yesterday (June 20), hosted by Prize founder and executive director Steve Jordan.

Reading out the nominee names were Stephen Carroll (The Weakerthans), former Polaris winner Buffy Sainte-Marie, broadcaster turned provincial NDP leader Wab Kinew, and Polaris juror Ashley Bieniarz.

This was followed by a surprise set from one of the longlisted acts, Indigenous hip-hop duo Snotty Rez Kids.

In total, 233 albums were considered by the 199 member jury for Long List selection. Further details including bios and streams can be found on the Polaris Music Prize website.

The 2019 Polaris Music Prize Long List as follows:

Tim Baker - Forever Overhead

Tanika Charles - The Gumption

Clairmont The Second - Do You Drive?

Charlotte Cornfield - The Shape of Your Name

Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman

Dilly Dally - Heaven

The Dirty Nil - Master Volume

Dizzy - Baby Teeth

Elisapie - The Ballad of the Runaway Girl

FET.NAT - Le Mal

Dominique Fils-Aimé - Stay Tuned!

Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams

Yves Jarvis - The Same But By Different Means

Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated

Kaia Kater - Grenades

Kimmortal - X Marks the Swirl

La Force - La Force

LAL - Dark Beings

Laurence-Anne - Première apparition

Salomé Leclerc - Les choses extérieures

Lee Harvey Osmond - Mohawk

Jean Leloup - L'étrange pays

Shay Lia - Dangerous

Les Louanges - La nuit est une panthère

Loud - Tout ça pour ça

Shawn Mendes - Shawn Mendes

Haviah Mighty - 13th Floor

Operators - Radiant Dawn

Orville Peck - Pony

Sandro Perri - In Another Life

PUP - Morbid Stuff

Lee Reed - The Steal City EP

Jessie Reyez - Being Human In Public

Shad - A Short Story About a War

Snotty Nose Rez Kids - Trapline

Alexandra Stréliski - Inscape

sydanie - 999

TOBi - STILL

Voivod - The Wake

Wintersleep - In The Land Of

“Canada Council is thrilled to support the musical talent recognized by the Polaris Prize and the success of new generations of Canadian artists here and abroad," said Carolyn Warren, Director General, Arts Granting Programs Division / Directrice générale, Division des programmes de subventions aux arts

The 10 album Short List will be announced on July 16. The 2019 Polaris Music Prize winner will be revealed at the Polaris Gala on Monday, September 16 at the Carlu in Toronto, and will be live streamed globally at cbcmusic.ca/polaris.

The Polaris Music Prize awards $50,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year, judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration for genre or record sales. Additionally, the nine other nominated acts whose albums make the 2019 Short List will receive $3,000 each courtesy of Slaight Music.

Albums eligible for 2019 Polaris Music Prize consideration must be released between May 1, 2018, and May 31, 2019. An independent jury of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada determine the Long List and Short List. Eleven people from the larger jury pool are then chosen to serve on the Grand Jury. This Grand Jury convenes on the night of the Gala to select the Polaris Music Prize winner.

Past winners of the Prize are Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).