Here is the Long List for the 2026 Polaris Music Prize
The Polaris Music Prize, now more than 20 years old, is an annual effort to determine the best Canadian album of the year without any regard to genre of commercial success.
Each year begins with 200+ music boffins from across the country (I am such a boffin out of 205 this year) nominating albums for consideration. Eventually, more than 200 albums (it was 202 this year) have to be heard and analyzed. In the spring, there’s a vote to cut things down to the Long List. The results of that voting arrived this week.
Here are the semi-finalists in alphabetical order. (I think all five of my votes made the list. I’ll let you speculate on what they are.)
Angine de Poitrine – Vol. II
Aquakultre – 1783
Baby Nova – Shhugar
The Beaches – No Hard Feelings
Begonia – Fantasy Life
Bibi Club – Amaro
Boy Golden – Best of Our Possible Lives
Mariel Buckley – Strange Trip Ahead
Lou-Adriane Cassidy – Triste animal
Ora Cogan – Hard Hearted Woman
cootie catcher – Something We All Got
Charlotte Cornfield – Hurts Like Hell
Daphni – Butterfly
Nadah El Shazly – Laini Tani
Dominique Fils-Aimé – My World Is the Sun
Foxwarren – 2
Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Laughter in Summer
Holy Fuck – Event Beat
Home Front – Watch It Die
JayWood – LEO NEGRO
Rochelle Jordan – Through the Wall
Kaytranada – AIN’T NO DAMN WAY!
Catherine Leduc – Les jours où il neige à tous les postes
Les Louanges – Alouette!
Men I Trust – Equus Caballus
Tami Neilson – Neon Cowgirl
No Joy – Bugland
Ouri – Daisy Cutter
Peaches – No Lube So Rude
PONY – Clearly Cursed
Propagandhi – At Peace
PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs?
Julianna Riolino – Echo in the Dust
Shad – Start Anew
Slash Need – SIT & GRIN
Arielle Soucy – Passages
Tanya Tagaq – Saputjiji
TOBi – For Good Measure (at Dreamhouse Studios)
Katie Tupper – Greyhound
Charlotte Day Wilson – Patchwork
Now we have to go through things again before we vote again. The result will be the Short List of ten, which will be announced on July 9. After that, it’s a matter of waiting for the Gala on September 22 in Toronto when a jury of boffins will select one winner. That artist will get $30,000.
