The short list for the 2026 Polaris Music Prize has been announced, with 10 different albums competing for the $30,000 grand prize.<\/p>\n
These 10 records were selected from a long list of 40 albums, and the prize will be handed out to the best album, based solely on artistic merit without consideration for genre, record sales or popularity, as selected by a jury.<\/p>\n
The full short list, powered by FACTOR is below:<\/p>\n
Angine de Poitrine, Vol. IIAquakultre, 1783Begonia, Fantasy LifeBeverly Glenn-Copeland, Laughter In SummerBibi Club, AmaroCharlotte Cornfield, Hurts Like HellLes Louanges, Alouette!Peaches, No Lube So RudeRochelle Jordan, Through the WallTanya Tagaq, Saputjiji<\/p>\n
This year, there is more cross-country representation compared to the 2025 short list: Angine de Poitrine, Les Louanges and Bibi Club make up the Quebec albums, while Begonia represents Manitoba and Aquakulture is based in Nova Scotia. Tanya Tagaq is from Nunavut, while Rochelle Jordan, Peaches, Charlotte Cornfield, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland make up Ontario\u2019s nominees.<\/p>\n
Starting July 19, the CBC Music radio series The Ten<\/a> will return for another summer. The special takes an in-depth look at each of this year’s shortlisted albums leading up to the Polaris Concert and Award Ceremony on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n The Ten will be hosted by Odario Williams, with episodes broadcasting each Sunday on CBC Music and CBC Listen at 6 p.m. (6:30 p.m. in NL) until Sept. 20. Listeners can tune in on the CBC Listen app on CBC Music<\/a> and listen on demand<\/a> after each broadcast.<\/p>\n Read on to find out more about the shortlisted albums below and listen to episodes of The Ten.\u00a0<\/p>\n Name: Angine de Poitrine About the album: Beginning with the rapid, churning groove on opening track Fabienk, Quebec math and prog rockers Angine de Poitrine have cemented their wonderfully weird ride with their second album, Vol. II. Following the band’s explosive, viral performance on KEXP earlier this year, this album was one of the buzziest of this spring, with music fans and critics alike wondering what the polka-dotted pair would do next under their newfound spotlight. <\/p>\n The result was a winding, wonky and syncopated record, filled with microtonal sounds that demonstrate not only creativity, but technical skill. The project has earned bandmates Klek and Khn praise in outlets from the New York Times<\/a> (\u201cThe band fully understands the power of rhythm, repetition, dissonance, surprise and noise, while it delivers them in a whimsical package\u201d) and Pitchfork<\/a> (\u201cThe pair claim they have been playing together for 20 years, and their telekinetic bond is apparent in these twisted arrangements\u201d).<\/p>\n Vol. II is only six tracks long, however with all but one song clocking in over the six-minute mark, it feels just as robust as other records, purposefully twisting and looping into something that is energetically over the top. \u201cThe whole idea of the band was to assume a bit of a satirical approach to rock music in general,\u201d Khn told Cult Mtl<\/a>. And that sense of fun and play is evident in every track. \u2014 Natalie Harmsen<\/p>\n Name: Aquakultre About the album: “They thought we won’t survive, but our people thrived,” sings Lance Sampson, a.k.a. Aquakultre, on Scotia Born, the very first song we heard off 1783. He called it<\/a> “an anthem celebrating the families and legacies of Black Nova Scotians, reminding Black Scotians how connected we are” \u2014 and it became the thesis statement for his record.<\/p>\n 1783 started as a way for Sampson to find out more about his family history, and after years of research \u2014 part of which turned into a multi-season TV show called Generations: Black Memories of Nova Scotia<\/a> \u2014 the artist discovered that his family goes back eight generations, reaching all the way back to when more than 3,000 Black Loyalists left New York and landed in Nova Scotia after the American Revolution.<\/p>\n Enlisting the talents of Linda Carvery, Measha Brueggergosman and Gary Beals, among others, Sampson worked with musician and producer (and CBC East Coast Music Hour producer) Erin Costelo to turn all this history into a 17-track concept album that spans genres and generations. Album opener What Are You Sayin’ swings with ease, the horns helping Sampson ask a common question growing up in Overtown (or Uniacke Square), one he wasn’t always sure how to answer. The haunting Gallows is the album’s centrepiece, a song about Sampson’s great-great-great grandfather, Daniel Perry Sampson, who was the last person executed in Halifax in 1935 \u2014 for a crime his family says he didn’t commit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aquakultre titled his debut album Legacy, and it was a breath of fresh air from a newly rising artist in mid-2020. But with 1783, Sampson has continued to fulfill that first promise \u2014 and shine a light on the legacies of so many Black African Nova Scotian voices in the process. \u2014 Holly Gordon<\/p>\n Name: Begonia About the album: What kind of existence do we imagine for ourselves? What does success look like and how can it be quantified? Begonia (a.k.a. Alexa Dirks) dives into the existential on her third album, Fantasy Life, while preserving the coy humour and revealing lyricism that has made her one of Canada\u2019s most compelling pop outliers. In March, the album won Dirks her first Juno Award for adult alternative album of the year after two previous nominations in the same category. <\/p>\n Fantasy Life was written over a month in Los Angeles with Dirks\u2019s longtime collaborators, writing duo Deadmen (Matt Peters and Matt Schellenberg), who also helped conceive her two previous albums, Powder Blue and Fear. In the opening line of My Fantasy Life, she sardonically says, \u201cThe world\u2019s on fire and I\u2019m going to write a pop song,\u201d before diving into a stirring reflection on her career and finding her truest self onstage. Across the album, she contemplates the insecurity of aging (Out of My Control), the mundanity of love (Life of the Party), the woes of the industry (Conditional Love) and the escapism necessary to avoid a downward spiral (So High).\u00a0<\/p>\n For Dirks, life is about the marathon, not the sprint, and as she pieces together the bits of her life as it is now across this record, she\u2019s not ashamed to admit the ways she\u2019s found wanting. What makes Fantasy Life so endearing is that in her relatable vulnerability, she speaks to the self-doubt in all of us. Dirks told CBC Q\u2019s Tom Power in an interview<\/a> following the album\u2019s release that her music career \u201cisn\u2019t about one singular success; it\u2019s about making art and creating a world other people can step into and hopefully find some relief and authenticity in me saying it\u2019s not always easy.\u201d \u2014 Kelsey Adams<\/p>\n Name: Beverly Glenn-Copeland\u00a0
Album: Vol. II
Hometown: Saguenay, Que.
Release date: April 3, 2026
Polaris history: This is the duo\u2019s first appearance on the short list.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Album: 1783
Hometown: Halifax
Release date: Feb. 6, 2026
Polaris history: This is Aquakultre’s first Polaris shortlist appearance; both of his previous albums \u2014 2020’s Legacy and 2022’s Don’t Trip \u2014 were longlisted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Album: Fantasy Life
Hometown: Winnipeg
Release date: Oct. 24, 2025
Polaris history: This is Begonia\u2019s second time on the short list; her album Powder Blue was shortlisted in 2023. Her debut album, Fear, was on the 2020 long list.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Album: Laughter in Summer
Hometown: Hamilton via Philadelphia
Release date: April 3, 2026
Polaris history: His 1986 album, Keyboard Fantasies, won the Polaris Slaight Family Heritage Prize in 2020. The prize celebrates albums released before Polaris’s inception in 2006.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n