news
Tegan and Sara Ponder Polaris Awardhood
Photo from Tegan and Sara’s recent Molson Amphitheatre show by gennybeans from the Torontoist Flickr pool.
Tegan Quin and her sister Sara are excited about their Polaris Music Prize shortlist nomination.
“We won an award for our hair a few years back, and while I was honoured that CBC thought we had good hair, I definitely started to think we weren’t an ‘awards’ band,” Tegan jokes in a short email exchange. “Every morning for the past eleven years I have woken up and shined my YTV Achievement Award from 2000 and thought to myself…where did we go wrong?”
Though the trademark chatty, charming duo are still known to brag about the YTV award during shows, they accepted the Polaris nomination with genuine excitement and flattery. With their most recent album, Sainthood, up against a roster of the nine other jury-deemed best Canadian album of the past year, including past Polaris winners Owen Pallett (then Final Fantasy) and Caribou, Tegan couldn’t really say that the award prize of $20,000 isn’t the point, because it sort of eluded them all together.
“Up until a few days ago I didn’t realize there was money involved,” she says. So what sort of hasty big money plans do they have in mind? “Sara and I haven’t discussed the details. We have a few different charities back in Vancouver that we give to regularly. I wrote a lot of Sainthood about the downtown east side in Vancouver and so I feel it would be fitting to give the money to some of the organizations that are in need down there.”
With all ten nominees set to perform during the award gala on Monday, Tegan doesn’t have any winner predictions, but she does dish a bit of a live spoiler. Maybe. “We’ve been talking with Owen Pallett about him performing with us and that’s got me excited to see him to discuss the matter! Its going to be an exciting evening I think!”
The Polaris Music Prize Award Gala takes place on Monday, September 20 at 8 p.m. Listen live on Sirius Satellite channel 86, or watch live online at Muchmusic.com.