Montreal’s Yves Jarvis has captured Canada’s most coveted music prize, taking home the 2025 Polaris Music Prize for his album All Cylinders at Monday night’s ceremony in Toronto’s Massey Hall.
The 11-member grand jury selected Jarvis’s fifth studio effort from a shortlist of 10 albums, awarding him the $30,000 prize that recognizes artistic merit above commercial success. The win marks Jarvis’s first Polaris victory, though he previously earned longlist spots in 2019 and 2021.
“I’m honoured, I’m really honoured. I was just honoured just to be nominated at all, I’m shocked,” Jarvis said during his acceptance speech, crediting both divine intervention and parental support for his success.
All Cylinders emerged from an unconventional recording process that saw Jarvis bouncing between subletted apartments and his parents’ Montreal home. He famously sustained a concussion while recording “The Knife In Me” due to low ceilings in his parents’ spare room, where much of the album took shape using Audacity, the free audio-editing software.
The album showcases Jarvis’s genre-fluid approach, weaving together funk, jazz, and psychedelic rock elements. His rapid-fire guitar work energized the Massey Hall audience during performances of “With a Grain,” “Gold Filigree,” and “One Gripe.”
Jarvis prevailed over a competitive field that included Juno winners Mustafa (Dunya) and Nemahsis (Verbathim), alongside Marie Davidson, the OBGMs, Population II, Saya Gray, Bibi Club, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, and Ribbon Skirt.
The evening also marked the debut of the Polaris Song Prize, with Mustafa earning $10,000 for “Gaza Is Calling,” a track exploring childhood memories of friendship across cultural divides in Toronto housing projects. The prize, created in partnership with SOCAN, will be split among the song’s co-writers Emmanuel Hailemariam, Simon Hessman, and Nicolas Jaar.
Additionally, the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize honoured pre-2006 releases, with the public selecting the Organ’s 2004 album Grab That Gun while the jury chose Jane Siberry’s 1985 record The Speckless Sky.
The Polaris Prize, now in its 20th year, continues to elevate Canadian artists based purely on artistic achievement, offering both financial support and international exposure to winners.
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