[MUSIC] On Tanya Tagaq winning the 2014 Polaris Music Prize

[rfmcdonald]

Nunavut throat singer Tanya Tagaq won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize Tuesday.

She speaks hard truths, and though her music is far from easy listening, Nunavut throat singer Tanya Tagaq has the country's attention. Last night, she won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize for her album Animism, beating out Canadian competitors like Drake and Arcade Fire.

"It felt calm when it happened but I'm getting excited now," Tagaq tells CBC Radio's As It Happens host Carol Off of her win. "I think it won't be until I'm sitting at home in Manitoba, cooking for my daughters and my family, that I'll really start jumping up and down."
As the winner, Tagaq takes home a $30,000 prize, which is awarded to Canadian recording artists, and judged by a panel of music critics.

"To be totally honest, I think that they're just excited to hear something that they've never heard before," she says about why she beat out higher profile competition for the prize. "Traditional throat singing is done with two women and it's not typically... improvised. I think what we're doing in sense of improvisation is very strong."

Many of the songs on Animism were improvisational.

"There are a couple of songs on the album that are one take, untouched improvisation," she says. "Other tracks on the album have a little bit of embellishment, and some have a lot. There's a full spectrum and I think that's what makes things interesting. Like if you're sitting down for a meal and you have different foods with different flavours and different consistencies, it kind of excites the palette. I think we had a good spectrum of preconceived notions and pure improvisation within the album."

"Tanya Tagaq in Puebla Mexico" (Watch on YouTube)

I liked Aubrey Jax's take on Tagaq's victory at blogTO.

There's no way to describe Tagaq's music without the risk of making it sound dull. Throat singing, contemporary-traditional, experimental, vocal explorations - yo, most Canadians are like "change the channel" right here. But as it is when you see any artist who breaks away from known generic constraints and sounds to create a force that is uniquely driven by the power of her own vision, Bjork-collaborating Tagaq has to be experienced to be understood.

And this, not the $30K, is the greatness of Tagaq's Polaris win: now the grunting, screaming, Francis-Bacon-painting emulating diva (you might entice your friends by linking "death metal" with "r&b"), more mainstream-famous for supporting the seal hunt than as an indie musician, will have her unique artistry thrust into the spotlight. Pitchfork wrote their first entry tagged Tanya Tagaq last night, and the Polaris Prize legitimately lived up to its claims that it cares only about an album's "artistic merit."

And for all the rock&roll-light swagger of "STFU" notices and creative interpretations of the blazer being thrown around at the gala, there was the actually bad-ass move of projecting name after name of missing Aboriginal woman for the duration of Tagaq's set. As our country fucks up left and right, the Polaris gala actually served as a reminder that Canada could lead not only in the arts, but in the arena of trying to be good human beings.