Canadian Musician November / December 2019

AND THE AWARD GOES TO... Haviah Mighty’s 13 th Floor Wins 2019 Polaris Music Prize Haviah Mighty won the 2019 Polaris Music Prize for the album 13 th Floor, mak- ing her the first rapper to win the prestigious award. The prize, awarded during the annual September gala in Toronto, goes to the best Canadian album of the year based solely on artistic merit. “For me, the 13th floor is something that we remove from our reality because it is something that we don’t understand and therefore we dismiss it,” Mighty said after winning the award. “This is very parallel to so many of the experiences that I speak on, on this album. I’m in a room with so many different people from so many different walks of life who have acknowledged that this is something they feel is important. These people don’t necessarily share the narratives that I do, or the walks of life that I have, and yet, here we are, finally on what I believe is the 13th floor. This is the moment of resurgence where the dismissal that has existed is now being removed, and the discussion is being had. I’m so grateful that the people around me push me to be brave enough to speak my truth and to have it be acknowledged in this way.” For more information, go to www.polarismusicprize.ca. Ian & Sylvia Individually Inducted into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame On Sept. 5 th during Country Music Week in Calgary, Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker, the mem- bers of iconic Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia, were individually inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. During the 1960s and ‘70s, Ian & Sylvia were among North America’s leading singer-songwriters, achieving commercial and critical success and recording 13 studio albums. Their folk standards like “Four Strong Winds” – deemed by the CBC to be the “most essential” piece of Canadian music – and “You Were on My Mind” were inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and 2007, respectively. For more information, go to www.cshf.ca. CANADIAN MUSICIAN 15

Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 15