Polaris

The Polaris Music Prize will soon be awarded. Here’s who Charlotte Cardin is rooting for

The Montreal singer will be competing with nine others, including the Beaches, Elisapie and Jeremy Dutcher, for the $50,000 award. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Charlotte Cardin can’t wait. On Tuesday night at Massey Hall, the 19th edition of the Polaris Music Prize — honouring the best Canadian album of the year — will be presented, and the pop chanteuse’s 99 Nights will be competing with nine others: folk, R&B and…

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Singer Dominique Fils-Aimé finds inspiration by looking to Black history

By Nick Krewen Special to the Star There’s a reason every Dominique Fils-Aimé album has been released in February: Black History Month. “I wanted to underline the link between Black history and music genres,” the Juno Award winner and Polaris Music Prize finalist recently explained from her Montréal home.  It especially makes sense when you consider the trilogy of 2018’s Nameless, 2019’s Stay Tuned! and this year’s Three Little Words,…


Black Canadian musicians discuss their songs linked to the death of George Floyd – one of them a ‘three-minute history lesson’

Nick Krewen Special to the Star It’s an ugly truth, but racism is more prevalent in Canada than we’d like to admit, say two Black Canadian artists who are illuminating the issue in their current and powerfully candid works. “There’s definitely a problem in Canada,” says Ruth Berhe –   better known as Ruth B. – who recently wrote and recorded the moving ballad “If I Have A Son” in the wake…