SOCAN congratulates all of its members who’ve been long-listed for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize, as announced on Tuesdsay, June 10, 2025, in a reveal event presented by the Canada Council for the Arts, at the Paradise Grapevine Winery and Bar in Toronto. All of the solo artists on the 40-album long list are SOCAN members, and all of the listed bands include at least one songwriter who’s a SOCAN member.
At the same event, Polaris launched the new SOCAN Polaris Song Prize, as the two organizations join forces to re-launch the SOCAN Songwriting Prize (formerly the ECHO Song Prize), which has been held annually since 2006. Similar to the album prize, the song prize will be adjudicated by the members of the Polaris jury, with the goal of determining the Canadian song of the year, based on artistic merit, without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity. The song prize will feature a 20-nominee long list being revealed on June 24, 2025, followed by a five-nominee Song Short List that will then be unveiled on July 29, 2025. The winner will receive $10,000, split between the song’s Canadian performers and the song’s credited Canadian songwriter(s), courtesy of SOCAN.
The long list, by artist, is (in alphabetical order, by band name or surname):
Art d’Ecco – Serene Demon
Backxwash – Only Dust Remains
Quinton Barnes – CODE NOIR
Bibi Club – Feu de garde
Basia Bulat – Basia’s Palace
Caribou – Honey
Lou-Adriane Cassidy – Journal d’un Loup Garou
Choses Sauvages – Choses Sauvages III
Cold Specks – Light For The Midnight
Antoine Corriveau – Oiseau de Nuit
Marie Davidson – City Of Clowns
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
Myriam Gendron – Mayday
Gloin – All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
Saya Gray – SAYA
Hildegard – Jour 1596
Yves Jarvis – All Cylinders
Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine
Bells Larsen – Blurring Time
Richard Laviolette – All Wild Things Are Shy
Wyatt C. Louis – Chandler
Kelly McMichael – After The Sting Of It
Men I Trust – Equus Asinus
Mustafa – Dunya
N NAO – Nouveau langage
Nemahsis – Verbathim
Eliza Niemi – Progress Bakery
The OBGMs – SORRY, IT’S OVER
Dorothea Paas – Think Of Mist
Klô Pelgag – Abracadabra
Population II – Maintenant Jamais
Ribbon Skirt – Bite Down
Ariane Roy – Dogue
Mike Shabb – Sewaside III
Sister Ray – Believer
Snotty Nose Rez Kids – RED FUTURE
The Weather Station – Humanhood
Rick White and The Sadies – Rick White and The Sadies
Donovan Woods – Things Were Never Good If They’re Not Good Now
Yoo Doo Right – From the Heights of Our Pastureland
For more information, visit the Polaris Music Prize website.