NEWS: POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE ANNOUNCES 2011 SHORT LIST FOR BEST CANADIAN ALBUM

Toronto, ON (July 6, 2011) The Short List of 10 Canadian albums selected as nominees for the sixth annual Polaris Music Prize, presented by SiriusXM Satellite Radio, was announced today. The juried award recognizes artistic achievement in recorded music.
The winning group or artist receives $30,000 this year, a first-time increase of $10,000. The nine other Short Listed nominees will receive $2,000 each, courtesy of Slaight Music.

In alphabetical order, the 2011 Polaris Music Prize Short List nominees are:

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Austra - Feel It Break
Braids - Native Speaker
Destroyer - Kaputt
Galaxie - Tigre et Diesel
Hey Rosetta! - Seeds
Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin’ On
The Weeknd - House Of Balloons


“Polaris has no categories because true musical genius defies categorization. This year’s selected recordings certainly reflect this belief, ” said Steve Jordan, Founder and Executive Director of the Prize.

Some Short List facts:

Eight artists are new to the Short List; Arcade Fire was nominated in 2007 for Neon Bible and Hey Rosetta! in 2009 for Into Your Lungs.

Three records are debuts: Feel It Break, Native Speaker and House Of Balloons.

House Of Balloons is the first free record to make the Short List.

With 12 full-length albums, Ron Sexsmith has the largest number of releases of any previous Short List artist.

Galaxie is the fourth French-language artist to make the Short List.

A jury of 213 music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada submitted their top five picks for best Canadian album released between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011.

These picks were narrowed down to a Long List of 40 which was made public June 16, 2011. A Grand Jury of 11 members will be selected to convene and determine this year’s winner on location at the Polaris gala.

The Polaris Music Prize gala will be held Monday, September 19. It will be exclusively broadcast live to North America on SiriusXM Satellite Radio 152 and to the world on CBC Radio 3. The event will take place at CTV’s Concert Hall studios at Toronto’s Masonic Temple and will feature live performances by this year’s Short List nominees. It will be webcast live on MuchMusic.com and broadcast on MuchMusic Saturday September 24 at 10 p.m. and midnight EST. The gala will also air on MusiquePlus at a date and time to be announced.

Previous Polaris winners have been Final Fantasy, Patrick Watson, Caribou, Fucked Up and Karkwa.

About the Polaris Music Prize

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected music critics. For more information on the Polaris Music Prize,visit polarismusicprize.ca