Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony
$40 Concert | Sep 16, Doors 7PM, Show 8 PM – 10 PM | Massey Hall, Toronto
19+ | Accessible
The Polaris Festival culminates in the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony presented by CBC and Powered by FACTOR on September 16, 2025, at the legendary Massey Hall. This unmissable evening celebrates the art of Canadian music with live performances by the 2025 Polaris Album Short List: Bibi Club, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Marie Davidson, Nemahsis, Population II, Ribbon Skirt, Saya Gray, The OBGMs, Yves Jarvis, and more, hosted by 2019 Polaris winner Haviah Mighty. Audiences will discover who wins the Polaris Music Album Prize, the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize, and two Heritage Prize designations. Join us for this immersive, one-night-only celebration of bold, visionary music. Get 15% off tickets by signing up for the Polaris newsletter.
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Bibi Club
The pair named themselves “Bibi Club” for the discotheque in their living room, where the couple’s bibis — their loved ones — come and dance. Their album Le soleil et la mer was widely praised since its release, earning the band the “Best Newcomers” award at the GAMIQ 2022 Awards and a nomination in the same category at the ADISQ Awards 2022. Le soleil et la mer was featured on the 2023 Polaris Music Prize Long List and amongst the best Quebec albums of 2022 according to Le Devoir. In France, the duo has been making waves since its debut. Following praise from Les Inrocks, Magic Magazine, Libération, and an official playlist add on France Inter, the band was included in the Best Albums of the Year by Les Inrocks and in the 10 Newcomers of the Year by Tsugi Magazine. They filmed a Blogothèque Take Away Show. BBC6 Music has supported the band by featuring them several times on Steve Lamacq’s cult show.
Bibi Club have opened for Blonde Redhead, Patrick Watson, Pomme and November Ultra, in addition to performing in France at MaMA Festival, in England at The Great Escape, in the United States at SXSW, in Wales at Focus Wales, in Brazil, in Germany, and in Canada during a vast summer tour. And the list grows longer every day. @bibiclubmusic
Lou-Adriane Cassidy
Lou-Adriane Cassidy is one of the most compelling voices in Quebec’s new wave. Winner of the 2022 Félix-Leclerc Prize and the Slaight Music Award, she’s also earned accolades from ADISQ, GAMIQ, and France’s Académie Charles-Cros. Her role in the acclaimed concert series Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p], hailed by La Presse as a “historic moment,” helped cement her reputation as a generational artist.
Cassidy’s debut album C’est la fin du monde à tous les jours stood out for its emotional depth and mature restraint. Cassidy is also a live sensation, earning praise as Le Devoir’s “Best Quebec Concert of 2022.” Her tours have taken her across Canada and to stages in France and Switzerland.
Now, with her third album Journal d’un Loup-garou, Cassidy enters a new artistic chapter. Leaving behind both French chanson and grunge-infused indie, she explores poppier, more contemporary sounds — without sacrificing intensity. The album is bold and vulnerable: she confronts the music industry, explores inherited pain, and reclaims her creative agency.
Cassidy sings with raw freedom and clarity of vision, confirming what audiences have long known—she’s a magnetic performer with something vital to say. Journal d’un Loup-garou isn’t just a new direction—it’s a statement. @louadriyo
Marie Davidson
Marie Davidson, a pivotal figure in Montréal’s vibrant electronic music scene, brings a multi-dimensional approach to her craft. Davidson’s journey in music extends over a decade, exploring genres ranging from ambient and techno to synth pop and spoken word. Her dynamic output reflects a complex tapestry of introspection, shadowed by darker, more ponderous tones yet always punctuated by an undercurrent of humor and vulnerability.
Davidson’s musical narrative is not confined to her solo projects. As part of Essaie pas and Marie Davidson & L’Œil nu, she has captivated global audiences with her incisive sound and energetic stage presence. Her ability to weave dramatic intensity with playful exuberance during live performances underscores her distinct identity in the music world.
Her discography, spanning influential labels like Ninja Tune and DFA Records, showcases her versatility and willingness to push boundaries. Beyond her personal projects, Davidson extends her musical prowess to theatrical realms, composing for Animals of Distinction, a testament to her adaptive and expansive artistic vision. @mariedavidson.official
Nemahsis
The musical instincts of compelling Palestinian-Canadian singer/songwriter Nemahsis began when she was young. As music was not played in her family home, when Nemah found music she found it for herself, which made her discovery all the sweeter and more startling. Growing up on a farm in Milton, Ontario, Nemah was born into a close knit family with 5 brothers and sisters all one year apart; a rural upbringing that shapes much of her artistic identity. @nemahsis
Population II
Population II is a band dedicated to its disengagement, constantly working on refining their imposing, yet unpretentious sound. A trio consisting of singer/drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist/keyboardist Tristan Lacombe and bassist Sébastien Provençal, Population II are masters at both improvised madness and sophisticated composition, delivering heavy psychedelic rock infused with feverish funk rhythms, a hint of jazz philosophy, a burst of energy reminiscent of punk’s early days, and a love of minor scales that harkens back to the roots of heavy metal. @populationii
Ribbon Skirt
Ribbon Skirt is a Montreal-based post-punk band led by Anishinaabe musician Tashiina Buswa and lead guitarist Billy Riley. The band released their debut album Bite Down on Mint Records in April 2025. Produced by Scott Munro (Preoccupations) and mixed by Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), the album marks a shift toward a darker, more introspective sound, exploring themes of memory, grief, and Buswa’s connection to her Indigenous identity and cultural practices.
Ribbon Skirt has performed at major festivals across North America, including SXSW, New Colossus, Sled Island, Sappyfest, and Pop Montreal, sharing the stage with artists like Dehd, Ombiigizi, Packs, Wombo, Marnie Stern, Enumclaw, and Chad VanGaalen. @ribbonskirtband
Saya Gray
Japanese-Canadian artist, Saya Gray has a unique ability to create a collage of sounds that feel both comforting and disorienting, vast yet intimate. Her releases so far, 2022’s 19MASTERS, 2023’s QWERTY I and 2024’s QWERTY II were made in periods of intense isolation, and as Saya herself describes it, she puts ‘1000 personalities in one song’. It’s this unfiltered, frenzied approach to her art that she feels is necessary to reclaim her sense of self in an ever changing world – and in the process marking her as one of the most exciting, up and coming musicians operating today. 2025 is a landmark year for Saya as she released her debut album SAYA – which is by far her most personal and intimate project to date. @sayagray
The OBGMs
The OBGMs fuse punk, rock, and hip-hop into an electrifying sound that’s garnered critical acclaim. Known for their ferocious live performances, they’ve shared stages with heavyweights like Death From Above, PUP, and Alexisonfire. Their explosive energy and genre-defying approach make them a force to be reckoned with, poised to leave an indelible mark on the music scene and captivate audiences worldwide with their raw, unapologetic style. @theobgms
Yves Jarvis
Make ready and say “ah” to All Cylinders — the golden, textured new album by one of Montreal’s most original musicians. Yves Jarvis, aka Jean-Sébastien Yves Audet, is no longer simply a recording artist: now, he says, he’s a songwriter. These 16 tracks of brazen songcraft and pure musicianship are things he played himself, without a single additional contributor (“Not even one!”), and see the 4X-Polaris-nominated artist turn with pleasure to the stuff of verses, choruses, hooks and hits.
“I basically only listened to Frank Sinatra for a year,” Jarvis says. He wanted Sinatra’s “clarity” — « the way the songs exist without him, as real things.” Whereas the 28-year-old previously approached music as something sculptural, “this time I just made a ton of songs,” working with an old laptop and bare-bones software, “no pretense.” “Instead of making a world, I thought: ‘I’m a band. The drums are there to keep the beat.’”
As always, Yves Jarvis is distinguished by his sound — a warm, vivid thing that feels at once like a handknit piece of fabric and a sheet of precious metal. He is dedicated to a music that condenses folk, R&B, country, blues, Americana—with a touch that’s contemporary, even futuristic, and smashes together a stunning array of influences, from Serge Gainsbourg and Judee Sill to Ray Charles, Brian Eno and Throbbing Gristle. Tunes like “Silver KG” and the title track are iridescent road songs; at other moments Jarvis meditates on truth, fiction and the utterly cosmic. Throughout, All Cylinders seems to shimmer in a middle space, part-real and part-celestial. The world’s full of love; it’s also full of mystery. “Thank God I’m me,” Yves Jarvis admits. “It would suck to be anybody else.” @yvesjarvis
Mustafa – Will not be Performing
Dunya, the title of Mustafa’s masterfully crafted and breathtakingly tender full-length debut, roughly translates from Arabic to “the world in all its flaws.” It’s a lofty subject for a young songwriter, but as with every theme at the heart of the Sudanese-Canadian artist’s work—from religious devotion to childhood trauma, gang violence to romantic intimacy—he approaches it through a personal lens. Blending genres and moods, weaving novelistic details into instantly memorable folk songs, he has crafted a record that feels like a series of personal breakthroughs, arriving one after the other.
The first thing that strikes you about Mustafa’s music has always been his writing: a simple, piercing tone that can make any story feel as raw and earnest as the words to a love song. With a hushed delivery that can silence his surroundings, Mustafa evolved swiftly from a child prodigy reciting poems throughout his native Toronto to a behind-the-scenes pop songwriting force. On Dunya, he becomes a full-on auteur in his own right.
“I’m trying to preserve and celebrate the ordinary life in the hood,” Mustafa notes of his lyrical inspiration. Exploring his upbringing and trajectory onward, these songs are equally disarming in their simplicity and multilayered in their emotional breadth. Featuring appearances from collaborators such as Aaron Dessner, Rosalía, Clairo, Nicolas Jaar, and more, alongside Mustafa’s longtime creative partner Simon Hessmann, the music reveals a confident, distinctive voice that’s never sounded more poised for the masses. Even when it sounds like he’s taking on the world, Mustafa is speaking only for himself: a story that he knows is just getting started. @mustafathepoet
Haviah Mighty didn’t need to change her birth name when she decided to dedicate her career to music. Mighty could not better describe Haviah’s craft of provocative challenges and uncompromising truths.
Based out of Brampton via Toronto, Haviah has spent a lifetime developing her skills as a songwriter, vocalist, producer, and performer, culminating in a style of profound introspection and incisive socio-political critique. Her dynamic combinations of rap, song, and instrumental transition seamlessly from hip-hop to soul to afrobeats with a meticulous flow and cadence that transcends any traditional expectation of genre.
2019 saw Haviah earn break-out success with her album, 13th Floor, making her the first hip-hop artist and the first Black woman to win the Polaris Music Prize, celebrating the “Best Canadian Album of the Year” – but Mighty didn’t stop there. With her JUNO Award-winning mixtape, Stock Exchange (Nov. 2021), Haviah made history once again as the first woman to ever win within the Rap Album of the Year category. Most recently, Haviah was the only Canadian nominee at the 2022 BET Hip-Hop Awards within the ‘Best International Flow’ category. Recognition has spread internationally, garnering praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, GRM Daily, FADER, Hot New Hip Hop, and so many more. In November of 2023 Haviah was featured on the viral song Trendsetter by Connor Price. The song to date has amassed more than 36 million streams world wide. In May of 2024 Haviah embarked on a European tour, with a couple dates in the Uk, Denmark, Ireland, Germany and Prague supporting Shabazz Palaces. In August of 2024 Haviah’s single Double the Fun single/video was released to Global Support by Spotify. Haviah made more noise by hosting and performing in the first ever first ever Billboard Canada Women in Music in September of 2024.
Mighty pushes forward continuing to carve out spaces that boldly defy gendered expectations for women in hiphop. Unyielding and irresistible – Haviah Mighty will be heard. @haviahmighty
POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE
Polaris Music Prize is a Canadian charitable arts organization celebrating 20 years of honouring music as art. From June to September 2025, the new Polaris Music Prize Festival brings concerts, salons, and listening sessions to Toronto and across Ontario — culminating in the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony on September 16 at Massey Hall. Through its Album, Song, and Heritage Prizes, Polaris amplifies Canadian artists based on artistic merit — not genre, sales, or algorithmic popularity. With 700+ artists championed, over $1.4M in prize and artist fees awarded, and a jury of over 200 music critics and curators, Polaris protects space for boundary-pushing music and fosters a deeper national music culture. Learn more at polarismusicprize.ca.
CBC presents the 2025 Polaris Music Prize. This year’s Concert & Award Ceremony is powered by FACTOR, the Government of Canada, and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. It is supported by SiriusXM Canada, Ontario Creates, the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, and the Slaight Family Foundation.
The event is part of the Polaris Music Prize Festival presented by SiriusXM Canada. CBC presents the 2025 Polaris Music Prize. This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada, and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. It is supported by SiriusXM Canada, Ontario Creates, the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, the Slaight Family Foundation, Solly’s, Rosehall Run Vineyards, Local Spirit Distilling Co., Dejado Tequila, and Steamwhistle.
