Recent releases by international stars The Weeknd and Arcade Fire top the list of forty Canadian albums that have earned a spot on the Polaris Prize long list.
With WE, released this spring, the formerly Montreal-based collective will attempt to win the prize for the best Canadian album of the past year for the second time. In 2011, Arcade Fire was acclaimed for The Suburbs.
As for the Torontonian and megastar The Weeknd, who has never won this prize voted by representatives of the music press from across the country, he obtains for the fifth time a ticket for the final stages of the Polaris following the critical and popular success of his latest, Dawn FM.
In addition to Arcade Fire, three past winners can look forward to becoming the first artists in Polaris Prize history to win it twice.
Montreal-based rapper Backxwash is back in the running, two years after her coronation in 2020. Toronto rapper Haviah Mighty and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagak, decorated in 2019 and 2014 respectively, can also dream of the double .
14 candidates from Quebec
Besides Arcade Fire and Backxwash, Quebec is well represented on the long list. On the French-speaking music side, the novelties of Hubert Lenoir (Pictura De Ipse: direct music), Praise (Crash) and Lydia Képinski (Since) won the favor of the jury.
The previous releases of Lenoir and Les Louanges had already managed to climb into the short list of ten finalist albums, which will be unveiled this year on July 14.
Four years after placing his album In my hand in the short list, pianist Jean-Michel Blais returns to the long list with Aubades.
On the French side, we should also note the presence of the albums of New Brunswicker Lisa LeBlanc (chic disco) and Nova Scotian P’tit Belliveau (A man and his piano), as well as that of the multilingual work of Pierre Kwenders (José Louis and The Paradox of Love).
The other Quebec-based artists in the running are Basia Bulat, Chiiild, Ada Lea, Men I Trust, Cedric Noel, Ouri and Stars.