MuchMusic places music lovers front-row centre of one of the most anticipated Canadian recorded music awards presentation – THE POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE. Packed with performances from the critically acclaimed nominees and culminating in the announcement of the 2011 Polaris Music Prize winner, this year’s gala streams LIVE on muchmusic.com, Monday, Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. ET. The evening will be recorded live from the Masonic Temple in Toronto, to air as a one-hour special Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10 p.m. ET, exclusively on MuchMusic. For a full list of this year’s nominees click here, and to listen to all the nominated albums, click here.

This year’s gala is co-hosted by MuchMusic’s THE WEDGE host (and past Polaris Prize winner) Damian Abraham and features band presentations from Much host Lauren Toyota, MuchMore host Matt Wells, and MTV host Johnny Hockin. Grant Lawrence of CBC Radio 3 shares co-hosting duties with Abraham. The gala culminates when a group of 11 esteemed music journalists, broadcasters, and music bloggers reveal the winner of the $30,000 prize for the best full-length Canadian album.

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected music critics. Previous Polaris winners have been Final Fantasy, Patrick Watson, Caribou, Fucked Up and Karkwa.