New Brunswick, Canada, native Jeremy Dutcher has gained the 2024 Polaris Music Prize for his album Motewolonuwok. The Two-Spirit composer and musician is now the primary artist within the prize’s 19-year historical past to win the award twice. (In 2018, Dutcher earned the accolade for his debut studio LP, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa.) With the victory, given to the artist with the perfect Canadian album of the yr, Dutcher additionally will get a money prize of $50,000, courtesy of the Slaight Household Basis.
The 2023 Polaris Music Prize recipient, Debby Friday, revealed Dutcher because the winner throughout the ceremony she hosted at Toronto’s Massey Corridor. The prize was introduced by CBC Music, and decided by a jury of writers, programmers, and broadcasters. The opposite artists who made the 2024 Polaris shortlist have been: Bambii, the Seashores, DijahSB, Charlotte Cardin, Elisapie, Cindy Lee, Nobro, Allison Russell, and Tobi.
“Six years in the past, this award modified my life,” Dutcher mentioned as he accepted the Polaris Music Prize. “I’ve to provide endless gratitude to this music neighborhood, please hold your arms going for all of those nominees. Not a single album on that checklist appeared like one another and that speaks to the breadth of music on this place. This choir, these singers, this band, everybody who helped make this album, I like you. I didn’t suppose this is able to occur.”
Dutcher, who now resides in Montreal, Quebec, is a Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick. He’s a classically educated Indigenous tenor, composer, and musicologist who sings in English, French, and his individuals’s native language, Wolastoqey. “I didn’t develop up as a fluent speaker, however I’ve labored darn laborious to ensure that it’s a part of my on a regular basis expertise,” Dutcher instructed Vogue final yr. His debut, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, was sung solely in Wolastoqey.
Earlier Polaris Music Prize winners embrace Pierre Kwenders, Cadence Weapon, Backxwash, Haviah Mighty, Lido Pimienta, Arcade Hearth, Tanya Tagaq, Kaytranada, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fucked Up, Feist, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Caribou, and extra.
