A Brampton Artist’s Album Just Won A Polaris Music Prize

Published September 17, 2019 at 3:36 am

Brampton Artist Haviah Mighty’s album has been declared the Canadian album of the year!

Brampton Artist Haviah Mighty’s album has been declared the Canadian album of the year!

Polaris Music Prize, a not-for-profit organization that awards creative and diverse Canadian recorded music, has stated that Haviah Mighty’s (debut) album, 13th Floor, is the best album of the year. They made the announcement yesterday (Sept. 16) at a gala dinner at Toronto’s The Carlu. 

13th Floor reflects on many topics ranging from racism she faced while growing up, and the close-knit family who taught her the importance of perseverance. 

The 11-member grand jury chose the album based solely on artistic merit instead of sales and popularity.

Last year’s winner Jeremy Dutcher’s Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, a Toronto-based First Nations tenor and pianist, presented the prize to Haviah Mighty last night. The award also comes with a check of $50,000. 

Haviah Mighty was up against nine other shortlisted albums: Marie Davidson’s Working Class Woman; Elisapie’s The Ballad of the Runaway Girl; FET.NAT’s Le Mal; Dominique Fils-Aimé’s Stay Tuned!; Les Louanges’s La nuit est une panthère; PUP’s Morbid Stuff; Jessie Reyez’ Being Human In Public; Shad’s A Short Story About A War; and Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ Trapline.  

The 10 titles included a range of styles, from Francophone to Indigenous, hip-hop, electronic and punk. Slaight Music awarded $3,000 to each of the nine runners up.

We sat down with Haviah Mighty recently, you can read that interview here

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