Polaris Music Prize Announces 40-Album 2025 Long List, Announces SOCAN Polaris Song Prize
Albums by Caribou, Saya Gray, Mustafa, Snotty Nose Rez Kids are in competition for the $30,000 prize (down from $50K). For the first time, Polaris will also award the best Canadian song, in addition to the best Canadian album, chosen by a 200-person jury of critics from around the country.
Official Polaris graphic
The 2025 Polaris Music Prize has revealed its long list, which comprises the 40 nominated records that will be considered for the prestigious award that celebrates Canadian albums based solely on artistic merit.
The Polaris Music Prize is a registered charity organization that annually honours and rewards artists who produce Canadian music of distinction. A select panel of music critics from across the country judge and award the prize without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity.
In total, 189 albums were considered for the long list by the 205-member jury this season. The Polaris Music Prize winner receives $30,000 (down from 2024's $50K) courtesy of the Slaight Family Foundation. The Polaris Prize album winner is determined by an 11-member Polaris grand jury selected from the greater Polaris juror pool.
The 2025 Polaris Music Prize Long List
Art d'Ecco - Serene Demon
Backxwash - Only Dust Remains
Quinton Barnes - CODE NOIR
Bibi Club - Feu de garde
Basia Bulat - Basia's Palace
Caribou - Honey
Lou-Adriane Cassidy - Journal d'un Loup Garou
Choses Sauvages - Choses Sauvages III
Cold Specks - Light For The Midnight
Antoine Corriveau - Oiseau de Nuit
Marie Davidson - City Of Clowns
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
Myriam Gendron - Mayday
Gloin - All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
Saya Gray - SAYA Hildegard - Jour 1596
Yves Jarvis - All Cylinders
Kaia Kater - Strange Medicine
Bells Larsen - Blurring Time
Richard Laviolette - All Wild Things Are Shy
Wyatt C. Louis - Chandler
Kelly McMichael - After The Sting Of It
Men I Trust - Equus Asinus
Mustafa - Dunya
N NAO - Nouveau langage
Nemahsis - Verbathim
Eliza Niemi - Progress Bakery
The OBGMs - SORRY, IT'S OVER
Dorothea Paas - Think Of Mist
Klô Pelgag - Abracadabra
Population II - Maintenant Jamais
Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down
Ariane Roy - Dogue
Mike Shabb - Sewaside III
Sister Ray - Believer
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - RED FUTURE
The Weather Station - Humanhood
Rick White and The Sadies - Rick White and The Sadies
Donovan Woods - Things Were Never Good If They're Not Good Now
Yoo Doo Right - From the Heights of Our Pastureland
The long list includes 16 first-time nominees as well as two past winners (Backxwash, Caribou) and one past Polaris Heritage Prize recipient (Rick White, as part of Eric’s Trip). The 2025 Long List was unveiled during a reveal event at Paradise Wine Bar in Toronto attended by a number of previous winners and current nominees. The Polaris Music Prize will reveal the 10 album short list on July 10.
During the event, Polaris announced the new SOCAN Polaris Song Prize category, Polaris’ first expansion since introducing the hall of fame Heritage Prize in 2015. Similar to the album prize, the Song Prize will be adjudicated by the members of the Polaris jury with the goal of determining the Canadian song of the year, based on artistic merit, without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity.
The Song Prize will feature a 20-nominee Long List revealed on June 24 followed by a five-nominee song short list that will then be announced on July 29. The first-ever SOCAN Polaris Song Prize winner will receive $10,000 split between the song's Canadian performers and the song’s credited Canadian songwriter(s) courtesy of SOCAN. Both the winning album and song will be revealed during the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony, powered by FACTOR, taking place at Toronto’s Massey Hall on September 16.
Tickets to the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony are on sale now via the Massey Hall website. To celebrate the Long List, Polaris is offering 15% off tickets with the code POLARIS15.
The past winners are Jeremy Dutcher (2024), Debby Friday (2023), Pierre Kwenders (2022), Cadence Weapon (2021), Backxwash (2020), Haviah Mighty (2019), Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), 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).
