The Polaris Music Prize is awarded annually to the year's best album out of Canada. For 2025, that album is All Cylinders by Yves Jarvis. The Montreal R&B/retro pop-rock hybridizer beat out fellow shortlist honorees Bibi Club, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Marie Davidson, Saya Gray, Mustafa, Nemahsis, the OBGMs, Population II, and Ribbon Skirt. All Cylinders came out in February via In Real Life.
Jarvis accepted the award Tuesday night during the Polaris ceremony at Toronto's Massey Hall, describing himself as "honored" and "shocked." After thanking God, he enthused about the support from his parents, who were in Slovenia and therefore had to miss the ceremony: "My dad just took me on tour. I had a last-minute tour offer, and my dad just recently retired, and he took me out, and I'm so blessed. He's always been — my parents are so supportive. I recorded most of the record in their spare room. I got a concussion, because the ceiling is so low, when I was recording 'The Knife In Me' on the record."
Later in his speech, Jarvis offered some background on All Cylinders: "I recorded most of it on like no budget. And I didn't even think that it was the record. I didn't even intend to move back to Montreal. I was in LA. I came back to Montreal. I stayed at my parents', recorded the whole skeleton there. I feel really blessed to be recognized this way and be an ambassador for Canadian art."
Mustafa's "Gaza Is Calling" won the inaugural SOCAN Polaris Song Prize, while two albums won the Slaight Family Heritage Prize, an award designed to honor albums released before the Polaris Music Prize was instituted in 2006. "One album will be chosen by public vote campaign, and a second will be determined by a Heritage Prize jury made up of music media and music historians," the Polaris website explains. This year's winners were the Organ's Grab That Gun and Jane Siberry's The Speckless Sky.
Below, check out Jarvis' acceptance speech, a range of performances from the ceremony, and the award-winning All Cylinders.
