We are excited to report that our partners at Polaris Music Prize have just announced this year’s Long List! Every year, Polaris celebrates the artistic achievements of Canadian musicians by highlighting some of the most creative and talented artists that the great white north has to offer.
About Polaris Music Prize
Polaris Music Prize – a not-for-profit organization presented this year by CBC Music – gathers a cross-section of around 200 Canadian music industry professionals to listen through a veritable slew of new releases from the past year. This esteemed jury narrows their list from – count them – 223 albums, all the way down to the 40 Long List selections. Their sole criteria is artistic merit, so you know it is an eclectic and deserving mélange of music. (And yes, that includes French language releases and beyond!)
One of these 40 artists will take home the top prize purse of a cool $50,000, and there are a host of other incentives for the artists who make it through to the top 10 Short List (see our Fast Facts below.)
Polaris Music Prize’s Long List is a great resource for discovering some of the most exciting new Canadian music that may not already have found commercial popularity. Play MPE is proud to be onboard as a sponsor, to help bring the work of these artists further into mainstream awareness. We will award this year’s grand prize winner a full-service global music promotion distribution package worth $3025 CAD, and the remaining Short List winners will receive music promotion distribution packages worth $1000 CAD each!
Without further ado, here is the 2022 Polaris Music Prize Long List:
AHI – Prospect
Arcade Fire – WE
Backxwash – I Lie Here Buried With My Rings And My Dresses
BADBADNOTGOOD – Talk Memory
Jean-Michel Blais – aubades
Basia Bulat – The Garden
Tanika Charles – Papillon de Nuit: The Night Butterfly
Chiiild – Hope For Sale
Destroyer – Labyrinthitis
Julie Doiron – I Thought Of You
The Garrys – Get Thee To A Nunnery
The Halluci Nation – One More Saturday Night
Joyful Joyful – Joyful Joyful
Adria Kain – When Flowers Bloom
Lydia Képinski – Depuis
Pierre Kwenders – José Louis And The Paradox Of Love
Ada Lea – one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden
Lisa Leblanc – Chiac Disco
Hubert Lenoir – PICTURA DE IPSE : Musique directe
Luna Li – Duality
Les Louanges – Crash
LOONY – soft thing
Kelly McMichael – Waves
Men I Trust – Untourable Album
Haviah Mighty – Stock Exchange
myst milano. – Shapeshyfter
Cedric Noel – Hang Time
Ombiigizi – Sewn Back Together
Orville Peck – Bronco
Ouri – Frame of a Fauna
P’tit Belliveau – Un homme et son piano
PUP – THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND
SATE – The Fool
Shad – Tao
Sister Ray – Communion
Snotty Nose Rez Kids – Life After
Stars – From Capelton Hill
Tanya Tagaq – Tongues
The Weeknd – Dawn FM
Charlotte Day Wilson – Alpha
Congratulations to all of these artists!
To learn more about all of the amazing prizes on offer this year – and to stay in the know with future announcements such as the Short List head to Polaris Music Prize!
Polaris Fast Facts:
- 40 Long List nominees
- 10 Short List nominees
- 1 Polaris Music Prize winner of the $50,000 prize
- 9 runner-up winners of $3,000 courtesy of Slaight Music
- 2 Heritage Prize winners
- 196 Polaris Posters commissioned by visual artists across the country
- 200+ annual jury participants
- 1,000 annual Gala guests
- $831,000 in prize money given to musicians
- 160 Short List nominees have been provided with in-kind media attention
- 20 Not-for-Profit and charity partners supported through the Community Development Program
For those of you who are new to Play MPE and want to know what it is that we do, we’ve got a snazzy video following the Journey of a Song.
