Big news about Buffy Sainte-Marie (and to a lesser extent Donna Hopper)

NEWS RELEASE

POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE

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Power In The Blood by Buffy Sainte-Marie was named the winner of the 2015 Polaris Music Prize.

The award was given out [last night] at The Carlu in downtown Toronto.

Gala host, Fred Penner, announced Buffy Sainte-Marie the winner and awarded her with the $50,000 prize.

The event was streamed live on CBCMusic.ca via CBCMusic.ca/Polaris, with backstage coverage by Laurie Brown (host of CBC Radio Two’s The Signal) and Melissa Hetu (Host / Producer of TFO’s BRBR).

'Well I’m sure surprised,” said Sainte-Marie. “I’m very very grateful. I’ll use some of the money to upgrade my studio. And I want to thank Geoff Kulawick of True North Records and everyone at Paquin Entertainment and CBC’s Alan Neal. Thanks to the three producers of this album, Chris Birkett, Jon Levine and Michael Phillip Wojewoda."

Buffy Sainte-Marie is an internationally renowned recording artist, activist, educator, visual artist, and winner of countless awards (Oscar, Juno, and Golden Globe, among them).

With an esteemed career spanning five decades to date, Sainte-Marie is widely known for her 1960s protest anthems (“Universal Soldier”, “Now That The Buffalo’s Gone”), open-hearted love songs such as “Until It’s Time for You to Go” (which has been recorded by a lengthy list of international stars including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, and Cher), incendiary powwow rockers like “Starwalker”, and the juggernaut Academy Award-winning pop hit “Up Where We Belong.”

Her bold new album, Power in the Blood, is an honest reflection of the Cree singer- songwriter and begins where it all started more than 50 years ago, with a contemporary version of “It’s My Way,” the title track of her 1964 debut.

Its message, about the road to self-identity and the conviction to be oneself, is one that still resonates with Sainte-Marie, and is among the hallmarks of her catalog – the eclecticism and compassion she brings to each album, oblivious to genre boundaries and production trends – that are in glorious bloom throughout Power in the Blood.

Enlisting the talents of producers Michael Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Jeff Healey), Chris Birkett (Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Geldof) and Jon Levine (Melissa Etheridge, Serena Ryder), Power in the Blood features several brand new tracks and revisits three of her earlier songs with contemporary recordings.

The title track was originally written and performed by the British band, Alabama 3, which Sainte-Marie makes her own by reconfiguring the original lyrics into a potent antiwar statement: “When that call it comes / I will say, no no no to war.”

Power in the Blood is Buffy Sainte-Marie’s eighteenth studio album, and only her fourth in more than 20 years; however, Sainte-Marie’s creativity is always in motion, and her passport's always in hand, touring for lectures and taking centre stage around the world with her high-octane backing band.