Polaris Prize announces performers for the 2016 Gala

News, Polaris Music Prize
By Regina Sienra

The Polaris Music Prize has announced both the performers and the members of the Grand Jury for its 2016 edition. Seven out of the ten shortlist nominees will play at the gala, which will take place on Monday, September 19 at The Carlu in Toronto.

Andy Shauf, Black Mountain, Basia Bulat, Carly Rae Jepsen, Jessy Lanza, U.S. Girls and White Lung will perform that night. Grimes and Kaytranada, who are also shortlist nominees, will be attending. PUP won’t be part of the ceremony because they will be on a month-long European tour. The Toronto band has a show in Austria that day.

The members of Grand Jury – which will be voting for the 2016 Polaris Prize winner on the night of the gala – are:

Adrien Begrand (freelance)
Lisa Christiansen (CBC Radio One – Vancouver)
Del Cowie (CBC Music)
Howard Druckman (SOCAN Words & Music)
Lana Gay (Indie 88)
Carla Gillis (NOW Magazine)
Andrew King (Canadian Musician)
Lisa Lagace (Turn The Record Over)
Trevor Risk (Ion Magazine)
Joni Sadler (CKUT)
Fateema Sayani (Ottawa Magazine).

Limited balcony tickets to the gala are available on Ticketfly.

polaris short

Are you tuning in to the Polaris Prize gala on September? Who are you rooting for? What songs are you hoping to hear that night? Let us know in the comments.

125 thoughts on “Polaris Prize announces performers for the 2016 Gala”

  2. Hello. I suppose Canada is all this-and-that, today, on account of the high jump at the Olympics (TM).

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  5. I doubt I’ll watch the polaris gala – I haven’t for the last two or so. It’s kind of painful to watch usually… I don’t know why they don’t put a little more oomph into the tv production values of it, otherwise, what’s the point of airing it.

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  6. FT, I think the video aspect is done on a “the tech makes it cheap” basis. It’s not as though there’s a lot of money around.

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  7. Good morning!
    I woke up with the power out,
    not really something to shout about…
    I am griping tho’…stupid hydro…

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  9. Hi friends! I’ve been out of commission for a few days and I missed some blog posts, which I have just caught up on.
    I’m right out of ‘er with regards to Polaris, so I will now ponder the list(s) above…

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  10. Hellooooo
    Did you see that Dave Grohl praised Black Mountain? Wouldn’t it be cool if he introduced them at the ceremony? I know it’s pretty impossible, but it would be awesome.

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  12. krib, who can divine “the reason” for something not happening? Mostly, I suppose it’s “because other records were chosen” — which is factual, but explains nothing of course.

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  16. we used to have some come on the old site and rail about “pop” and that’s why LV shouldn’t make it, because discordant noise like Godspeed is so much better….

    but Carly Rae is on the short list this year

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  19. So I was at the foot doctor yesterday… He asked if I was Canadian! I took that as a compliment. I was talking about Toronto and Edmonton and the doc is Canadian, so that tipped him off.

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  20. Fussy, a band I heard play lately is called *Bad Girls*.

    Three guys.

    They certainly are.

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  21. HIP FANS: on Friday, *q* will have a special T.H. show, with many people heaping tributes upon Gord etc., but, better, some artists doing Hip covers. (I don’t know who’ll be ‘live’ and who, recorded.)

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  22. I read up a bit on U.S. Girls. It’s mainly one American girl who moved to Toronto about 5 years ago. Music is good but depressing. Quit after 2 songs, now listening to Andy Shauf.

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  28. @Garf, I wrote a little script to auto-reload the comments page. If you give me access to WP admin, I could figure out a good place to put it, test, etc. If you’re interested of course. I have plenty of WP experience.

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  32. Hmmm… yes indeed it does look that way, garf @ 9:08am

    So, without having heard the whole album, (I’m foolhardy like that!) I am going to suggest that Grimes takes the prize. Part of my reasoning is that her win is more likely to promote the Polaris prize itself widely, as she has international recognition. (Maybe I am just being cynical…)

    But I think Old Abe would love Black Mountain to win, so that’s who I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for.

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  33. Hello from Whitehorse !
    Trying to use the iPad but no letters show up on the keyboard so my touch typing is trying hard to remember where all of the letters are supposed to be.

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  34. I think Andy Shauf has some good chances of winning it – and it would be awesome to see him win. Also rooting for Basia Bulat and PUP.

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  36. That would be great if the comments would auto reload! Yay for people who know how to make that happen!!!

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  37. I went for lunch with @deiru yesterday. He toured me around Whitehorse a bit, we visited his fiancé and of course went to a microbrew/ distillery. Fun to see them in their new digs. No John Dixon on this visit, maybe next time.

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  39. Happy to be here I would say. Figuring out the two weeks on work site and two weeks at home routine still but enjoying the North …. except for the lack of live music that is.

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  40. My Polaris top 5 wish list is
    Black Mountain (Wooohooo)
    Andy Shauf (Way to go Andy!)
    PUP (f*** yeah)
    U.S. Girls (you go girls)
    White Lung (you rock)

    If you want to check out the short list, here is a playlist with a song from each artist on Spotify.

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  47. My wish list and who I think will win are different. I think Jessy Lanza has a really good chance of winning as does Grimes and Andy.

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  48. @samara they seem to be settling in nicely and making plans for their futures here. It has been good to keep in touch. Now I have been able to introduce him to my sister and they chatted about rock climbing together so that could be another neat off shoot.

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  49. @Morgana – Sadly no sign of it yet. 😦 I am still heartbroken over it. I have never had as good a bike as that one and I was so happy with it.

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  52. @morgana – I am not sure it is worth it. My insurance is a 500 deductible and then my payments would go up. The bike was about 500 but then there is the rack and pannier I put on it and my helmet as well along with the 6 bags or so of cans.

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  53. Morgana, unless you already did, why don’t you plot where you’re either a) likely to be, or b) could be, at 5:30 “then time” on Saturday.

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  55. @b from o this is mr morgana’s trip in terms of planning. He is in the VW with the rest of the family and should be here this afternoon and I will ask him.

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  56. I’ve lost 3 or 4 bikes to theft in my life. Sometimes, sort of my fault, others, not so much. Infuriating as anything. The good side of it? There isn’t one.

    (Break into the Hip’s *The Kids Don’t Get It*, for no particular reason. Literally. I’ve got it on the ‘puter.)

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  57. @darbar the thief(s) took your returnables too?
    Insurance is so crappy like that. The bike I had stolen was worth the claim. Being a non driver in Vancouver my bike was my everything.

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  60. (I’ve been playing a lot of Tragically Hip in the past while. I wonder why.)

    (Now it’s *Family Band*. As a songwriter, Gord Downie is Sofa King great. That is all.)

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  64. I am going to meet my sister downtown for lunch and have a 40 min walk ahead of me to get to her so I am going to put on an old iTunes play list and get myself ready to hit the road.
    Have a great week – end everyone!

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  65. @morgana – The returnables was probably their main target and the bike was a bonus. I plan on talking to the insurance agency again once I get a chance to see if anything else is missing. I have my police report made though. My man friend is determined to get me another bike and he has already had a message from a mutual friend of ours wanting to chip in. We had planned on having our bikes in Winnipeg last weekend, so every bike (and there were a lot) that went by made me a little sad. We will figure something out for our camping trip.

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  66. Fussy, yes it is. And she got to choose it among the three I got, which is nice for her, I think.

    Not to self-glorify (as you’ll see), but I couldn’t STAND buying them from Kathleen for $1 each (esp. as it was a fundraiser for oh shit who knows, adopted golden retrievers or something), so I pressed a $20 bill on her for the three. Which is still not a heck of a lot. Worth a lot more was the happiness of R., and of tiffy, who also got one by the by.

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  67. Benoit, it was very discouraging even though I was aware it happens a lot. The bike shop guy said “Yeah, you have to put a lock on them inside the garage as well”. Sad but true.

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  68. Darbar, sigh another big one and say “FUCK IT”! Compared to other things that have happened to you, this pissoff is only just that. Another bike will come soon, just throw the “burn” to the wind. What else (that’s useful) can one do? Chin up!

    (Now playing Boots or Hearts off the Hip’s first full-length. Sofa King great, again.)

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  69. @krib – That is all I can tell so far. There were a lot of cans! It has been a very long time since they were taken in.

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  70. I’m sorry Mr Benoit, I will try to do better in future but in the mean time I plead to your good nature for mercy. I will start inflating me seppuku sword.

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  71. morgana, you can rely on the 5:30 “then time” I mentioned, if it’s indeed 3 hours earlier there than in Kingston, which I think is the case.

    CBC ads for the event — and Jaysus! they’re going to monopolise almost all anglo CBC channels for this! — the ads say that the Tragically Hip show will start promptly at 8:30 Eastern Time.

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  72. I am very much a “it is just things” person but that was a thing that made me really happy and I don’t have many nice things. I can’t afford another bike like that one so I have to rely on others. I will survive and yes I have bigger worries. Onward we go.

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  73. All the Hip shows have started promptly at 8:30. I will have to make sure we get to the casino in time for the broadcast.

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  74. @DBS, I can only speak for myself but I don’t think it is the cash value that upsets so much as the fact someone bought it for you. It is as if the loss of an item, even if it is not your fault like in this case, make you feel guilty towards the person that supplied it.

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  77. I’m just thinking out loud here but if people post their Tragically Hip watching party photos on instagram could they use the hashtag #ourbasement so we can share them and possibly create a gallery of them for the blog next week

    Like I said, just a thought

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  79. My son had a similar thing happen to him when he was perhaps 20 something: bought himself a new bike (red!) and a good lock, had a job downtown, and the bike was stolen inside of ten days.

    Just shitty. A learning experience where you mostly learn never to lock a shiny bike downtown, I guess.

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  80. Garf there is definitely that guilt factor in there.

    Har har Benoit. That would be a gamble wouldn’t it.

    I get why people carry around their bike tires with them now.

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  81. garf, 10:34, I must have gotten confused, I thought the bike was about to be replaced shortly.

    (Also, your previous comment about how one feels when a given bike is stolen is, I think, perceptive.)

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  82. @Garf – If I manage to get my phone issues worked out, I will try to remember to hashtag it a photo.

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  83. Hopefully I do have a bike that evening actually. We leave the next day for our camping trip. So many things to work out in the next few days.

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  84. dar, I carry my bike wheel with me ALWAYS. It’s minimum security. And actually, I now have had to (re)start locking my old, stylish Raleigh International road bike, which ten years ago interested no-one, but now is hipster-attractive. So I bring two pounds of cable and lock now. Adds more ‘challenge’ — weight — to groceries, but…

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  85. It actually may have been a good thing I didn’t have my bike on the weekend. I crashed into a parked car when I had a dizzy spell while riding my bike. They had gotten better but returned on the weekend. Doc appointment on Friday and hoping the dizzy spells go away asap. A bit scary.

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  86. I’m really thinking challenges are kind-of ruining sports. I know they’re tying to get the best outcome and such, but it’s getting a little silly

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  88. challenges to calls. especially ones that aren’t directly related to a play. I can see asking for a review of a completed pass or an in/out in a game like tennis or volleyball. Some other abilities to challenge, though, I dunno….

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  89. hehe….repubs are angry at Bradley Cooper for being a democrat after starring in that American Sniper movie

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  90. Our family has lost its share of bikes to theft too. At least five or six in total. My son in particular has learned (the hard way, repeatedly) that you can’t leave a bike unlocked for even a minute.

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  92. @morgana… I am jealous you are in Whitehorse! I have friends from there that now live in Edmonton, they said it’s incredibly beautiful up there. How is @deiru and wife these days?

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  93. So about Polaris, it mentions Grimes and Kaytranada will be also be attending. Does that mean they are choosing not to perform but will be there?

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  109. “Artist’s page” on R3 now is, um, no page; what can be done is to select the next one of his of her songs that comes up — after an ad. You get a sequence of them. That’s it, that’s all, that’s everything.

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  111. I was reading a “then and now” article about Mexican Olympic Medallists and 90% used the fame and became politicians (and most of them are quite corrupt).
    What’s the average for a famous Canadian Olympic athlete?

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  112. Reginula, good question. I think often they have another career, as you can’t live on archery for instance. We do see some as colour commentators on t.v. But going political? Not often, I think.

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  113. Hi, I have to leave this thought here, as I have noewhere else to really put it. I heard a song on the campus radio this afternoon – it was couer de pirate doing an Amy Winehouse song. She ruined it. The song was “You Know I’m No Good” – one of Amy’s classics… a perfectly good, nay, great, song. I really, really don’t like the couer de pirates voice, it grates me. The way she covers the song is very down tempo and … sad? sounding. I don’t know the adjective. But I had to get this off my chest. I can not stand couer de pirate and now she’s gone and soiled a great song by one of my favourites!

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  116. I don’t know what Olympians do when they’re not sportsing. I imagine it’s like being a musician – you apply for grants and just keep training.

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  118. “and now she’s gone and soiled a great song by one of my favourites.”

    May you survive that indecent attack on all that is sacred.

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  121. Not sure I have a favourite french pixie.

    I do like some french bands though. Galaxie! Malajube! etc…

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  124. Generally, French singers do better in French than in English. FT, I’m just kidding. Your previous post read a bit melodramatic, is all.

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  125. Ah, darbar, so you did get it. It is a darned good album, including that slower song. the fourth, Jusqu’è la fin. I was playing it in my car just the other day.

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