Singer Tanya Tagaq has beaten Arcade Fire to the 2014 Polaris Music Prize – Canada’s equivalent of the Mercury Prize.
Tagaq picked up the $30,000 winner’s cheque at a ceremony in Toronto last night (September 22nd) thanks to her album ‘Animism‘, while $2,000 went to the other nine shortlisted artists for this year. She apparently used the occasion to aim some unpleasant comments in the direction of PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals).
“On a quick side note, people should wear and eat seal as much as possible,” she is reported to have said. “An indigenous culture is thriving and surviving on a renewable resource: wearing and eating seal. It’s delicious, and there’s lots of them, and fuck PETA.”
Tagaq adds her name to a growing roll of honour which also includes Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Feist, Arcade Fire, Karkwa, Fucked Up, Caribou, Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy.