We believe music can move people, shift and reflect culture, and bring us together. This is where we share winner announcements, Long/Short Lists, festival news, artist interviews, and behind-the-scenes updates from the Polaris season.
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Happy Halloween/Blue Jays Anticipated Victory Day. On this most sacred of days for those of us who wear black and walk the line between good and evil, former Polaris jury foreperson Liisa Ladouceur’s recent column “There is no goth revival – the spooky subculture never died” for The Globe And Mail feels timely. That said, […]
We’re gonna start this week’s new release column by talking about one of the most important Canadian songs ever created — “OK Blue Jays.” Let’s get the tenuous Polaris connections out of the way — a) Barry Keane, the drummer for late Heritage Prize winner Gordon Lightfoot, played on this song, and b) past nominees […]
Yves Jarvis’ All Cylinders has won the 2025 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album, and Mustafa has won the first-ever SOCAN Polaris Song Prize for “Gaza Is Calling.” The two Prizes, which were presented by CBC, were handed out to cap off the 2025 Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony on September 16 at Massey […]
Jane Siberry’s The Speckless Sky and The Organ’s Grab That Gun have won the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize. The two new Heritage Prize winners were announced at 9 PM at the 2025 Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony, which took place at Toronto’s Massey Hall on September 16. The Polaris Heritage Prize is a hall-of-fame […]
Free No Registration Required | Sept 27 & 28, Oct 4 & 5, 2025 | Toronto | Toronto Music Garden | All Ages |||| Harbourfront and Polaris bring you free concerts featuring Polaris alumni, Land of Talk (Sept 27), Begonia (Sept 28), Charlotte Cornfield (Oct 4), and Tanika Charles (Oct 5).
Twenty years ago, Polaris set out to champion music as art — to celebrate Canadian albums based on merit, not metrics. Two decades, 700+ honoured artists, and over $1.4 million in prizes and artist fees later, we’re still here, still listening, and still believing in the power of music to move a culture forward. To […]
Free Poster Exhibition | Sep 2-10, 7-2AM | Cry Baby Gallery |||| The Polaris Poster exhibition returns to Cry Baby Gallery, showcasing a bold retrospective of Polaris Music Prize history. Featuring posters from each year of the Prize, the exhibition is a visual tribute to Canada’s most creative albums—part music history, part art show, and completely one-of-a-kind.
Sep 7, 1-3PM | Responsive Ecologies Lab (RELab) at TMU |||| Patchwork is a hands-on workshop series organized by Katie Stelmanis (Austra – Polaris nominee) that aims to create an unintimidating space for learning about modular synthesis. While synth communities are often dominated by white cis-masculine norms, Patchwork expands the possibilities of who can participate in this form of music-making by centering women, 2SLGBTQ+ and/or racialized people who may or may not have any experience with noise-making electronics.
Sep 8, 6-8PM Salon | Daniels Spectrum |||| Co-presented by Polaris Music Prize and the Music Managers Forum Canada (MMFCanada), De-Mystifying Polaris is a Polaris Salon and panel discussion that uncovers the mysteries of Polaris, including topics like the new Polaris Song Prize, an exciting new initiative being announced at the 2025 Concert & Award Ceremony at Massey Hall, how Polaris jurors and grand jurors make their selections, and most importantly, how to get your art or artist in front of Polaris Jurors.
$19.99 Concert | Sep 12, 8-10:30PM | Mills Hardware, Hamilton |||| Polaris has partnered with Supercrawl to produce a concert during the Festival featuring Polaris 2025 Long Listed artist Sister Ray and Eliza Niemi at Mills Hardware in Hamilton.
