Final Fantasy Win The Polaris Music Prize

Final Fantasy have scooped the first ever Polaris Music Prize, the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury Prize.

The act, the one-man project of Owen Pallett, won the $20,000 award for the album ‘He Poos Clouds’ ahead of the likes of Broken Social Scene, Metric and Wolf Parade.

On scooping the prize Pallett said: "I always feel like Canadian critics, especially, have for a long time, been hesitant to get behind something and say, hey this is really great."

"It's just part of the Canadian mentality. I think the best thing about the Polaris prize is it's maybe going to set a precedent for people to actually get behind our artists."

The awards ceremony took place at Toronto’s Phoenix Theatre last night and is the brainchild of Toronto based music industry veteran Steve Jordan.

The full list of nominees was:

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
The Deadly Snakes - Porcella
Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
Sarah Harmer - I'm a Mountain
K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Malajube - Trompe L'Oeil
Metric - Live It Out
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary