Final Fantasy grabs Polaris Music Prize
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 | 8:57 AM ET
CBC Arts
Dark-horse entry Final Fantasy captured the inaugural $20,000 Polaris Music Prize on Monday night as the best Canadian album of the past year.
Final Fantasy, a one-man project featuring singer-songwriter and violinist Owen Pallett, was singled out for the 2006 album He Poos Clouds. It beat out a shortlist that included a number of more established acts, including Broken Social Scene, Metric, the New Pornographers, Sarah Harmer and K'naan.
Pallett said he hoped the fledgling award, based on the U.K.'s famed Mercury Prize, would help Canadian music fans open their eyes to more emerging, homegrown artists.
Final Fantasy, a one-man act featuring singer-songwriter and violinist Owen Pallett, won the inaugural $20,000 Polaris Music Prize on Monday.
(CBC)
"I think the best thing about the Polaris Prize is that it's maybe going to, you know, set a precedent for people to actually get behind our artists and stop saying, 'Well it's good, but not that good,' " he told CBC News.
Pallett, who made his album for $8,000, also said he hopes to use his winnings to help acts even more obscure than his to produce records.
Final Fantasy's win was announced at a gala concert in Toronto, where it was chosen by an 11-member jury made up of arts journalists from across Canada. To be eligible, an album had to be released between June 1, 2005, and May 31, 2006.
While nominees toasted each other with champagne at the gala, jury members deliberated over their choice in a side room.
The prize is the brainchild of Steve Jordan, a Toronto-based music industry veteran, who wanted to honour the country's best album based on creative quality, regardless of genre or how well it sold.
"The proof will be when we see how much attention these records get and how much attention Owen gets for winning," he said Monday night.
A 10-track compilation album featuring music from each of the 10 nominees was released in music stores last month.
With files from the Canadian Press
