2015 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize Winners Announced

The 2015 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize winners

The people have spoken.

The Polaris Music Prize today announced the winners of the 2015 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize. The winners, by designated time periods, are:

Blue by Joni Mitchell (60s & 70s)
The Trinity Session by the Cowboy Junkies (80s)
Twice Removed by Sloan (90s)
The Teaches of Peaches by Peaches (00s: 2000-2005)

The jury for the Heritage Prize consisted of 25 people from current and past Polaris juries as well as former members of the Canadian music media and Canadian music historians. This jury selected five title short lists for each of the four Heritage Prize time periods. Then a public vote took place between September 18 and October 5 to determine the winners.

“These first recipients are such an incredible mosaic of artists and recordings. My father Allan and the Slaight Family are very proud to be supporting this recognition and we look forward to honouring more inspirational recordings in the coming years,” said Gary Slaight, Slaight Communications President and CEO.

The Heritage Prize and its short lists will be an ongoing annual honour similar in manner to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main Prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history,” said Steve Jordan, Polaris Founder and Executive Director.

When determining what made the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize the jury selected records in accordance with current Polaris criteria; records of the highest artistic quality without regards to sales or affiliations. The programming team at Roy Thomson / Massey Hall will produce a tribute concert to the four winning albums of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize winners in early 2016. Commemorative prints of each winning album will be made specially for the winners and will also be available to the public for purchase.