The Heritage Prize is a hall of fame-minded critics prize/public polling campaign meant to celebrate classic Canadian albums created before Polaris began in 2006. Like the Polaris Music Prize, winners and nominees of the Heritage Prize are albums of the highest artistic distinction, without regard to sales or affiliations.
Think of the Heritage Prize as our version of a hall of fame where we try to determine who would have won the Polaris Music Prize in the years before Polaris existed.
How it works is a select group of Canadian music media and historians gather together each year to create a vote-curated list of 10 Short List-nominated albums per era. Two albums per era, one chosen by public vote and one chosen by juror vote, will be designated as Heritage Prize winners each year.
2016
1960-1975: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen
1976-1985: Rush, Kate & Anna McGarrigle
1986-1995: Blue Rodeo, Mary Margaret O'Hara
1996-2005: Arcade Fire, Lhasa de Sela
