New to this Year’s Polaris Music Prize: The Slaight Family Heritage Prize
There’s a twist to this year’s Polaris Music Prize. While the hardcore music faithful will lay bets on which album on the Short List will be named the best of the year, there will be a second award up for discussion at the Carlu in Toronto on September 21. It’s the first-ever Slaight Family Heritage Prize. From Polaris itself:
The jury for the Heritage Prize will consist of 25 people from current and past Polaris juries as well as former members of the Canadian music media and Canadian music historians.
The jury will select a five album Short List for each of the four time periods:
* ’60s & ’70s
* ’80s
* ’90s
* ’00s (2000-2005)
This jury will select records in these periods in accordance with current Polaris selections; records of the highest artistic quality without regards to sales or affiliations. The Short Lists will be published on September 18. The public will then pick the winner from each Short List.
Voting will be open from September 18 until October 5 at polarismusicprize.ca.
The winners will be announced on October 9. The programming team at Roy Thomson / Massey Hall will then produce a tribute concert to the four winning albums of the Slaight Family Heritage Prize winners at some point in early 2016. Winners will receive a special trophy at the tribute show. Commemorative prints of each winning album will also be made available for purchase to the public.
