The 2025 Polaris Music Prize long list has been announced, featuring 40 albums selected from a total of 189 under consideration for their artistic merit by the 205-person Polaris jury.
Past winners Caribou and Backxwash are back on the list again, this time with nominations for Honey and Only Dust Remains, respectively, while albums from Art d'Ecco, Bibi Club, Destroyer, Marie Davidson, Gloin, Saya Gray, Mustafa, Population II, Sister Ray, the Weather Station, Yoo Doo Right and more are also included. See the complete list below.
The 40 albums nominated will be whittled down to just 10 when the short list is announced on July 10. The grand prize winner will be revealed at the Polaris gala at Massey Hall on September 16, and will take home $30,000 courtesy of the Slaight Music Foundation.
This year also marks the inaugural SOCAN Polaris Song Prize, which will award the Canadian song of the year, based on artistic merit, without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity, with the $10,000 prize split between performer and songwriter(s). The 20-song long list will arrive June 24, ahead of the five-song short list reveal on July 29. The Song Prize will be awarded alongside the Album Prize and Slaight Family Heritage Prize at the gala.
The prize is also launching the first-ever Polaris Festival, which will run through September.
Past Polaris Music Prize winners include Jeremy Dutcher (2024), Debby Friday (2023), Pierre Kwenders (2022), Cadence Weapon (2021), Backxwash (2020), Haviah Mighty (2019), Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).
2025 Polaris Music Prize Long List:
Art d'Ecco - Serene Demon
Backxwash - Only Dust Remains
Quinton Barnes - CODE NOIR
Bibi Club - Feu de garde
Basia Bulat - Basia's Palace
Caribou - Honey
Lou-Adriane Cassidy - Journal d'un Loup-Garou
Choses Sauvages - Choses Sauvages III
Cold Specks - Light for the Midnight
Antoine Corriveau - Oiseau de Nuit
Marie Davidson - City of Clowns
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
Myriam Gendron - Mayday
Gloin - All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
Saya Gray - SAYA
Hildegard - Jour 1596
Yves Jarvis - All Cylinders
Kaia Kater - Strange Medicine
Bells Larsen - Blurring Time
Richard Laviolette - All Wild Things Are Shy
Wyatt C. Louis - Chandler
Kelly McMichael - After the Sting of It
Men I Trust - Equus Asinus
Mustafa - Dunya
N NAO - Nouveau langage
Nemahsis - Verbathim
Eliza Niemi - Progress Bakery
The OBGMs - SORRY, IT'S OVER
Dorothea Paas - Think of Mist
Klô Pelgag - Abracadabra
Population II - Maintenant Jamais
Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down
Ariane Roy - Dogue
Mike Shabb - Sewaside III
Sister Ray - Believer
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - RED FUTURE
The Weather Station - Humanhood
Rick White and the Sadies - Rick White and the Sadies
Donovan Woods - Things Were Never Good If They're Not Good Now
Yoo Doo Right - From the Heights of Our Pastureland