TORONTO — Jeremy Dutcher has won the Polaris Music Prize for his second album, “Motewolonuwok.”
For the first time in the award’s 19-year history, the $50,000 prize for best Canadian album of the year went to a previous winner.
“Six years ago, I put out my first record; this award changed my life,” he told a cheering crowd at Massey Hall in Toronto.
Dutcher’s “Motewolonuwok” beat out nine other albums vying for the award, including some unusually high-profile names.
Records by Charlotte Cardin, the Beaches, Allison Russell and Elisapie were shortlisted for the prize, which selects its winner based on artistic merit.
Dutcher first won a Polaris prize in 2018 for his debut album, “Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa,” which featured the operatic tenor duetting in the Wolastoq language with archival recordings of his ancestors.
His latest Polaris winner expands on those ideas with songs written at least partly in English.
He’s described the record as confronting the nuances of the modern Indigenous experience, from its sorrow to its joy, while also building a bridge to the English-speaking listeners who discovered him after his first Polaris win.
Backstage after he accepted the award, Dutcher said he would donate his prize money to Kehkimin, a Wolastoqey language immersion school his mother established in New Brunswick.
“They started with one class of four-year-olds; it’s now in its third year,” he said.
“We’re seeing so much amazing progress for our language. We have less than 500 fluent speakers left, so we’re now in the fight of our lives.”
He urged other Canadians to consider following his lead with their own donations.
“I think allies, non-Indigenous people, all want to help. But I think people don’t know how (or) where to put their energy,” he said.
“This is a grassroots survivor-led initiative to help an Indigenous revitalization. There’s no more tangible way to help out Indigenous people in this country.”
Dutcher added that the primary goal of continuing his music career is to draw more attention to language revitalization, which he believes involves sometimes performing in English to expand his audience.
“Sometimes you need to use different tools,” he said.
“Music is amazing because it cuts past the brain right to the heart.”
The Polaris is considered one of the country’s most prestigious music awards, with previous winners including Haviah Mighty, Kaytranada, Pierre Kwenders and Debby Friday, who hosted this year’s proceedings at a packed Massey Hall.
Organizers have been trying to grow the Polaris into a more formidable public event in recent years. This year’s turnout was their largest yet, with the main floor occupied by musicians and industry players and the upper floors filled with music fans.
A day before the show, they faced one unexpected hurdle when opener Charlotte Cardin was forced to back out of her performance due to a recent COVID-19 diagnosis.
That led organizers to shuffle around some of the acts, putting Elisapie at the top of the night. She kicked it off with her cover of Metallica’s “The Unforgiven” sung in Inuktitut.
Cardin still made a special appearance through some creative compromise.
She was initially slated to perform live with Strings From Paris, a six-member strings act founded by Toronto musician Aaron Paris. Without Cardin in attendance, the group moved ahead with their appearance by playing live on stage as footage of Cardin singing “Next to You” accompanied them on a screen projection.
Other highlights included teenage rock act Thunder Queens who joined the Beaches lead singer Jordan Miller to perform “Edge of the Earth” from the Toronto band’s “Blame My Ex.”
Montreal all-female punk act Nobro brought their boisterous energy to a medley of songs from their album, including the fist-pumping “Let’s Do Drugs.”
And while Allison Russell had a previous engagement, the Montreal folk singer’s album “The Returner” was represented with a performance of “Eve Was Black” by Memphis-based Collage Dance Ballet.
Other Polaris shortlisted artists who took the stage to play songs from their nominated albums included DJ and producer Bambii and rappers DijahSB and Tobi, while Cindy Lee premiered a new music video in their absence.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
David Friend, The Canadian Press