Tanya Tagaq Takes Home Polaris Music Prize
It probably would’ve been very easy for the Polaris Music Prize jury to bestow the unofficial Canadian album of the year title to 
efforts from the much-buzzed Arcade Fire, Drake, Basia Bulat, or Mac DeMarco. Instead, the voters travelled outside the lines and presented the 2014 Polaris Music Prize to Animism by Tanya Tagaq.
Apart from being just the ninth winner of the award and receiving a boost in profile, Tagaq – an Inuk throat singer who was raised in Nunavut – landed a cash prize of $30,000.
“We’ve been doing it our own way without backing down artistically or conforming, so to be recognized in this way and have so many people latch on makes me feel the world is tolerable. There’s so much hurt in the world and within indigenous cultures with colonialism,” said Tagaq. “Canada is in a desperate need for repair and I think a lot of people are tired of living this way and just to have people understand where we’re coming from makes me have hope that we can move forward and expose the true history of Canada.”
In her speech, Tagaq encouraged everyone to eat and wear seal, before declaring “And fuck PETA!”
Past winners of the Polaris Music Prize include: 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).
Please be sure to follow us on Twitter @riffyou and at Facebook.com/riffyou.
