Quebec duo Angine de Poitrine wins 2026 Polaris Music Prize | CBC Music Events

The otherworldly rock band took home the $30K prize for their 2nd album

Angine de Poitrine, the masked and ornately costumed band from Saguenay, Que., has won the 2026 Polaris Music Prize.

The anonymous duo received the accolade and $30,000 for their second album, Vol.II.

Their manager Sébastien Collin gave an acceptance speech on their behalf since the band members, Khn and Klek, do not speak in their real voices, opting instead to use a made-up language to maintain their anonymity.

"That all this attention is being directed toward music this rock-driven and this complex is unexpected, yet entirely deserved," Collin said at the end of the Polaris Music Prize Concert in Toronto at Massey Hall.

"This artistic project is the result of a lifetime of refinement, collaboration, a drive to push beyond one’s limits, and a refusal to be confined by any established framework."

The Polaris Music Prize goes to the best Canadian album of the year, based solely on artistic merit and voted by a jury of Canadian music experts. The prize has been given out every year since 2006. Past winners include Feist, Kaytranada, Patrick Watson, Jeremy Dutcher, Debby Friday and more.

Who is Angine de Poitrine? The masked Quebec band is taking the internet by storm

Angine de Poitrine has had a massive year. The band's dizzying, tension-filled microtonal rock first took the world by storm when they went viral after a performance on KEXP, the Seattle-based radio station, which now sits at 19 million views on YouTube.

Just two years after the release of their debut album, they've sold out an international headlining tour, opened for Jack White, shared a stage with Shania Twain and made appearances on British and American late-night shows.

Vol.II was selected from a short list of 10 albums by more than 200 Canadian music critics and journalists who make up the Polaris jury.

Angine de Poitrine beat out previous winner Tanya Tagaq, and previous nominees Les Louanges, Bibi Club, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Begonia, Peaches, Rochelle Jordan, Charlotte Cornfield and Aquakultre.