Following Cadence Weapon's 2021 Polaris Music Prize win, the organization has awarded the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize to B.C. punk outfit Nomeansno and singer/songwriter and activist Faith Nolan.
Nomeansno's 1989 album Wrong was chosen in the Heritage Prize public voting category, while Nolan's 1986 release Africville received Heritage designation by the 11-member Polaris Heritage Prize jury.
"Part of the role of the Heritage Prize is to shed light on great albums that may no longer be widely known and played, even though they laid the groundwork for many others," Heritage Prize jury foreperson Mary Dickie explains in a statement. "These two remarkable albums — a pioneer in fusing punk and metal and a song cycle about Black history in Canada — not only exhibit excellence in songwriting and musicianship, but are landmarks in Canadian music history."
Like the Polaris Music Prize, winners and nominees for the Heritage Prize are Canadian albums of artistic distinction, without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity.
Last year's Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize was awarded to Beverly Glenn-Copeland's Keyboard Fantasies, Buffy Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! and Main Source's Breaking Atoms.
Previous winners of the Polaris Heritage Prize include Rush, Alanis Morissette, Kid Koala, the Tragically Hip, Eric's Trip, Feist, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and more.
Nomeansno's 1989 album Wrong was chosen in the Heritage Prize public voting category, while Nolan's 1986 release Africville received Heritage designation by the 11-member Polaris Heritage Prize jury.
"Part of the role of the Heritage Prize is to shed light on great albums that may no longer be widely known and played, even though they laid the groundwork for many others," Heritage Prize jury foreperson Mary Dickie explains in a statement. "These two remarkable albums — a pioneer in fusing punk and metal and a song cycle about Black history in Canada — not only exhibit excellence in songwriting and musicianship, but are landmarks in Canadian music history."
Like the Polaris Music Prize, winners and nominees for the Heritage Prize are Canadian albums of artistic distinction, without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity.
Last year's Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize was awarded to Beverly Glenn-Copeland's Keyboard Fantasies, Buffy Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! and Main Source's Breaking Atoms.
Previous winners of the Polaris Heritage Prize include Rush, Alanis Morissette, Kid Koala, the Tragically Hip, Eric's Trip, Feist, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and more.
