Kaytranada and his album 99.9% came out on top at the Polaris Prize ceremony last night, but that result was by no means in the bag. Like always, the field of nominees for the best Canadian album of the year was absolutely stacked and the ceremony’s performances proved it. Uproxx favorites like Carly Rae Jepsen and White Lung showed why they belonged on the shortlist and lesser-known (but still great) acts like Andy Shauf and Basia Bulat proved their musical mettle as well. Check out CRJ doing “Your Type” off of the still-wonderful Emotion up top and the other performances below.
White Lung:
Black Mountain:
US Girls:
Basia Bulat:
Jessy Lanza:
Andy Shauf:
The Polaris Prize also contained a rather interesting bit where another famous person would go to bat for the album that they think should be the winner in an “endorsement video.” The short clips pulled in big names like Dev Hynes (for Emotion) Jeff Tweedy (for Shauf’s The Party), Amber Tamblyn for (White Lung’s Paradise), and Iggy Pop (for US Girls’ Half Free). But perhaps the most interesting endorsement came from Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhand, who big-upped PUP’s The Dream Is Over before DM-ing a quest made from nominated band names. Check those out below:
