Albums from 10 acclaimed Canadian acts sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½” including Charlotte Cardin, the Beaches and Allison Russell sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½” will compete for the Polaris Music Prize tonight.

The prestigious $50,000 award, presented at Torontosa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™s Massey Hall, anoints the best Canadian album of the year as decided by a jury of music critics based on its artistic merit.

Other contenders include rapper Tobi, Inuk musician Elisapie and previous Polaris winner Jeremy Dutcher.

The Polaris short list spotlights rising Canadian acts to a wider national audience, but in a rare instance, seven of this yearsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™s contenders have already won Junos, the countrysa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™s top music award.

Among them is DJ and producer Bambii, who picked up her first Juno in Halifax earlier this year, while Toronto rapper DijahSB, Calgary drag queen rock project Cindy Lee and Montreal punk band Nobro round out the list.

The Polaris, hosted by last yearsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™s winner Debby Friday, will feature performances by most of this yearsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™s nominees although Charlotte Cardin has announced she wonsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½™t be able to perform due to a recent COVID diagnosis.