Who will be Awarded the 2024 Mercury Prize?
Who will be Awarded the 2024 Mercury Prize?
The Mercury Music Prize is an annual award which is given to the ‘best album’ released in the last twelve months. Any act from the UK or Ireland is eligible for the prize and the award will consider all genres of music. Victory tends to result in a significant increase in sales, streams and notoriety. The Mercury Prize was first awarded in 1992 with Primal Scream’s Screamadelica claiming the inaugural award.
How Does it Work?
Any genre of music is eligible to be entered for the award, however, the album must have had a physical and digital release in the UK. Albums will be put forward by their record labels for a small submission fee. An independent panel of judges made up of music journalists, broadcasters, radio presenters and former professional musicians will listen to each of the entries across several months before selecting their twelve favourites. The judges’ decision must be based solely on the musical content of the album.
The twelve albums with the highest number of votes will make up the shortlist. This tends to be announced in July.
The same panel of judges will meet on the day of the award ceremony to discuss their favourite albums before eventually settling on a winner.
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Previous Winners
As we’ve already discussed, every single genre of music is eligible for the Mercury Prize, however, there is a prevailing feeling that heavy metal has been largely overlooked.
Primal Scream’s Screamadelica was the inaugural winner of the prize and this was followed by Suede’s eponymous album in 1993. Other notable winners in the 1990s include M People, Pulp and Portishead. Miss Dynamite, Dizzy Rascal and Antony and the Johnsons were all victorious in the early 2000s, although the latter was a controversial pick as several members of the band did not reside in the UK.
Other winners include Elbow, Arctic Monkeys, the XX, James Blake, Alt-J, Skepta, Wolf Alice and Michael Kiwanuka. The 2023 Mercury Prize was awarded to Ezra Collective who saw off competition from Arctic Monkeys, Loyle Carner and ShyGirl.
PJ Harvey is the only artist to have picked up the Mercury Music Prize on more than one occasion. She was victorious in both 2001 and 2011. Several artists have made the shortlist on multiple occasions.
Who are the 2024 Contenders?
Charli XCX’s sixth studio album ‘Brat’ is the early favourite to pick up the award this year. This album is inspired by the 1990s rave scene and has a meatier club sound than previous releases. It is the highest album of the year (as of August 2024) and it received universal acclaim from critics. Laura Snapes of the Guardian described the album as a ‘masterpiece’.
Leeds-based English Teacher have enjoyed a breakthrough twelve months and their album ‘This Could be Texas Wins’ has been installed as second favourite. Pitchfork describe their sound as mix of indie-prog, rock, folk and electronica and their songs have received plenty of coverage on radio stations such as BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6Music.
‘Crazymad, For Me’ is the second studio album from Irish singer songwriter CMAT and it has been installed as third favourite for the 2024 accolade. This album features an appearance from John Grant and received universal acclaim upon its release.
British rapper Ghetts has also been added to the shortlist. His album ‘On Purpose, With Purpose’ was released back in February and features guest appearances from notable names including Kano, Sampha (a previous Mercury Prize winner) and Wretch 32.
Beth Gibbons, who enjoyed success with her band Portishead in the 1990s, is back with a solo album entitled ‘Lives Outgrown’. This album was written over a decade and includes meaningful topics such as anxiety, menopause and mortality.
Scottish artist Barry Can’t Swim released his debut album ‘When will we Land’ in 2023 to critical acclaim and is unsurprisingly amongst the contenders. It’s been a fantastic twelve months for The Last Dinner Party and they are also nominated for their album ‘Prelude to Ecstacy’. It reached number one in the album charts
Other artists to be nominated this year including Nia Archives and Corinne Bailey Rae.
Who is Likely to Win?
The Mercury Prize is an unpredictable beast and there have been several unexpected winners over the last decade. Last year’s winner Ezra Collective were priced up at around 25/1 ahead of the announcement, so it may be worth looking for something at a chunkier price. The winner will be picked out by a vast number of judges, so it often depends on the prevailing mood.
Charli XCX is a worthy favourite, but don’t be surprised to see something far less fancied prevail at the beginning of September.