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FYI

Tanika Charles Named First NMC Polaris Artist Resident

R&B singer and Polaris long-lister Tanika Charles is named the inaugural recipient of Lixar and the National Music Centre present the Polaris Artist Residency that comes with a five-day residency at Studio Bell in Calgary.

Tanika Charles Named First NMC Polaris Artist Resident

By Nick Krewen

Edmonton native and Toronto-based R&B singer and songwriter Tanika Charles is the winner of the newly established Lixar and the National Music Centre present the Polaris Artist Residency.


Charles was announced as the winner at Tuesday night's Polaris Music Prize ceremony at the Carlu in Toronto, and wins a five-day residency at the National Music Centre's Studio Bell in Calgary, with travel expenses covered by Lixar. The resulting recording will be pressed to vinyl, courtesy of Lixar.

The contest was open to all 2019 Polaris Long Listers, with Charles' album The Gumption getting the nod for this expansion of the NMC's Artist in Residence program.

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The prize also includes a performance and a party by Charles, scheduled for January 2020 with further details to be announced.

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Lou Christie
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Lou Christie

FYI

Obituaries: '60s Pop Idol Lou Christie Passes Away at 82

This week we also acknowledge the passing of New York City rock photographer Marcia Resnick, reggae star Leroy Gibbons and South African jazz drummer Louis Moholo.

Lou Christie (Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco), one of the most beloved teen pop idols of the 1960s and the voice and songwriter behind Billboard Hot 100-topper “Lightnin’ Strikes,” died on June 18, after a long illness. He was 82 years old.

ABillboard obituary reports that the Pennsylvania-born singer "Christie soared to fame in the early ’60s with hits such as 'The Gypsy Cried' and 'Two Faces Have I,' the latter of which reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1963. The star’s biggest hit came three years later, when 'Lightnin’ Strikes' ascended to the chart’s summit, but he would still score a top 10 smash years later in 1969 with 'I’m Gonna Make You Mine.'"

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