The Story of the Heritage Prize and This Year’s Polaris Music Prize
Polaris all about new and shiny. Heritage is about…respecting our elders. From Billboard:
Every year the Polaris Music Prize crowns a Canadian album annually as the year’s best, recently honoring Arcade Fire and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Now Polaris founder and executive director Steve Jordan has created the inaugural “Slaight Family Heritage Prize,” which will honor beloved Canadian albums from the ’60s through the ’00s.
That means classics by Rush, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Jane Siberry, Stompin’ Tom, Alannah Myles, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen could be up against titles by Thrush Hermit, Jale, D.O.A., Chalk Circle, Bootsauce, Luba and Dayglo Abortions. Except for this prize, the nominees are determined via industry jury, and the winners selected by public vote.
“There’s so much great music from over the years that has been impactful to what is going on in today’s music,” sponsor Gary Slaight of Slaight Music tells Billboard, “so I wanted to find a way to pay tribute to some of the great Canadian artists that have led the way over the years. Polaris is all about new, so this is trying to connect to the old and meaningful.”
