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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Haviah Mighty reflects on the ripple effect of winning Polaris in 2019 — from redefining what’s possible as the first Black woman to take the Prize, to navigating music in the public eye. In this conversation with juror DJ MelBoogie, she opens up about growth, legacy, and the walls she’s tearing down in the studio right now.
Polaris Music Prize is seeking a maximum of three (3) individuals for its Board of Directors to help lead the organization. The Director role is an unpaid, volunteer position and requires an average of 2-5 hours commitment bi-monthly. Deadline for applications is November 20, 2025. Individuals will be elected at Polaris Music Prize’s Annual General Meeting in […]
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.
