Meet the Montrealers up for the Polaris Prize tonight

The Polaris Prize, createdto honourthe best Canadian album of the year, will be handed out tonight, and two Montrealers are in the running for the honour.

The winner will takes home a $50,000 grand prize.The other nine nominees will each receive $3,000.

• 10 artists shortlisted for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize

Kaytranada

Kaytranada, bornLouis Kevin Clestin, is actually fromSaint-Hubert (close enough!) on Montreal's South Shore.

He's nominated for his debut album 99.9%, which came out in May, but he's been releasing music for years.

• Explore the explosively colourful art ofRicardoCavolo, the illustrator behindKaytranada's99.9%cover

He first began to DJ when he was 14 and sees his music as a bridgebetween the dance world and the hip hop/R&B scene.

He was nominated for a Juno award this yearbut was later disqualified when it came to light that his songAt Allwas released outside the eligibility period.

Basia Bulat

This is Bulat's third time on the shortlist. She was also nominated in 2008 forOh, My Darlingand in 2014 forTall Tall Shadow.

She's up this time around for her 2016 album Good Advice,a collection of break-up songs that are deceptive in that they sound upbeat.

• Basia Bulat's breakup album makes heartache sound so good

"It's an old trick, of course, that happy song that you don't realize is actually a sad song, but more and more it's the kind of thing that interests me," she said during an interview on q earlier this year.

The Polaris Music Prize is considered to be one of the most prestigious awards in Canada, because the jurors are allpeople in the music industry, includingmusic critics, writers, radio hostsand music producers.

"It's voted on by people who listen to music all the time and not [awarded for]a particular genre or an amount of sales," says Katherine Duncan, the head of the jury for this year'sPolaris Music Prize.

"It's based solely on artistic merit."

It's based solely on artistic merit.- Katherine Duncan, 2016Polaris Music Prize jury head

Duncan, who is also a host and producer for CBC Music and CBC Radio 2, says the award can be a big boost to an artist's career.

She gives, as an example,Inuit throat singerTanya Tagaq,who won the award in2014.

"BasiaBulatthis is her third time on the short list,so maybe third time's a charm for her. Kaytranadareally, really interesting, up and coming, very young artist who isjust 23 years old doing really interesting work. They bothhave lots of supporters on the jury, so we'll see what happens tonight," says Duncan.

If either of them win, Bulator Kaytranada will join indierock bands Arcade Fire (2011),Karkwa (2010) and singer-songwriter Patrick Watson (2007)as Montrealers who have taken home the prize.

The entire event will be live-streamed on the CBC Musicpage at 8 p.m. ET.