New Brunswick, Canada, native Jeremy Dutcher has received 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 very best Canadian album of the 12 months, Dutcher additionally will get a money prize of $50,000, courtesy of the Slaight Family Foundation.
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 offered 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 present endless gratitude to this music neighborhood, please maintain your fingers going for all of those nominees. Not a single album on that record 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 really like you. I didn’t assume this may occur.”
Dutcher, who now resides in Montreal, Quebec, is a Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick. He’s a classically skilled Indigenous tenor, composer, and musicologist who sings in English, French, and his folks’s native language, Wolastoqey. “I didn’t develop up as a fluent speaker, however I’ve labored darn laborious to be sure that it’s a part of my on a regular basis expertise,” Dutcher instructed Vogue final 12 months. 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 Fireplace, Tanya Tagaq, Kaytranada, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fucked Up, Feist, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Caribou, and extra.