Rapper Haviah Mighty of Toronto has won the 2019 Polaris Music Prize for her album 13th Floor.
Winner gets $50,000 cash prize and heightened global awareness for their music
David Friend · The Canadian Press ·
Haviah Mighty has won the 2019 Polaris Music Prize for her album 13th Floor.
The project, the first awarded to a female hip-hop and rap artist, was selected by an 11-member jury as the Canadian album of the year based on its artistic merit.
Mighty’s first full-length solo album 13th Floor reflects on being a woman of colour in today’s society, and finds positive inspiration in her family.
She accepted the Polaris prize saying that it’s one of the few accolades she’s received from years of making music, but she was grateful that it resonated with the jury.
“My truth, how important it is, and how dismissed it often is, I don’t care about that,” she said while accepting the award.
“I’ve had the same thoughts and the same sentiments since high school, and every time it was ‘not the time,’ and it ‘wasn’t the place,’ and here are the Polaris 2019 it is the time and the place.”
Mighty is also a member of the all-female Toronto hip-hop act The Sorority.
The Polaris prize is considered one of the country’s most prestigious music awards. Former winners include Jeremy Dutcher, Arcade Fire, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Kaytranada.
The winner receives a $50,000 cash prize and heightened global awareness for their album.
