Mercury Prize

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mercury Prize
Awarded forBest album from the United Kingdom and Ireland
LocationUnited Kingdom
First awarded1992; 32 years ago (1992) (as Mercury Music Prize)
Websitemercuryprize.com

The Mercury Prize, called the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is a yearly music prize. It is awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was formed by the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers in 1992. It was an alternative to the Brit Awards. It used to be called the Mercury Music Prize.

The prize was first sponsored by Mercury Communications.[1] It was later sponsored by Technics,[2] from 1998 to 2001. Then Panasonic,[1] in 2002 and 2003, and the Nationwide Building Society, from 2004 to 2008. Barclaycard became the Prize's current sponsor in March 2009.

Nominations are announced in July. Presentation of the award usually takes place in September.

Winners and shortlisted nominees[change | change source]

Two people (one vocalist and one guitarist) performing on stage
Inaugural winners Primal Scream
Five men sitting at a table at a press conference
Suede won in 1993.
Heather Small of M People, winners in 1994
Portishead, winners in 1995
Gomez, winners in 1998
A man playing a guitar and singing on stage. He is wearing a denim jacket and woolen cap
2000 winner Badly Drawn Boy
A girl singing and playing a guitar on stage
PJ Harvey, winner in 2001 and 2011, the only artist to win the award twice
A man rapping on stage, with purple spotlights behind him
2003 winner Dizzee Rascal
Franz Ferdinand, winners in 2004
2005 winner, Antony and the Johnsons
The Arctic Monkeys won in 2006.
Three men who are raising glasses. They are wearing dark clothing
2007 winners, Klaxons
2008 winners Elbow
2009 winner Speech Debelle
2010 winners The xx
2012 winners Alt-J
2013 winner James Blake
2014 winners Young Fathers
2016 winner Skepta
Year Winner Shortlisted nominees Ref(s)
1992 Primal ScreamScreamadelica [3]
1993 SuedeSuede [4]
1994 M PeopleElegant Slumming [5]
1995 PortisheadDummy [6]
1996 PulpDifferent Class [7]
1997 Roni Size/ReprazentNew Forms [6]
1998 GomezBring It On [6]
1999 Talvin SinghOk [8]
2000 Badly Drawn BoyThe Hour of Bewilderbeast
2001 PJ HarveyStories from the City, Stories from the Sea [10]
2002 Ms. DynamiteA Little Deeper [11]
2003 Dizzee RascalBoy in da Corner [12]
2004 Franz FerdinandFranz Ferdinand [13]
2005 Antony and the JohnsonsI Am a Bird Now
2006 Arctic MonkeysWhatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not [14]
2007 KlaxonsMyths of the Near Future [15]
2008 ElbowThe Seldom Seen Kid [16]
2009 Speech DebelleSpeech Therapy [17]
2010 The xxxx [18]
2011 PJ HarveyLet England Shake [19]
2012 Alt-JAn Awesome Wave [20][21]
2013 James BlakeOvergrown [22][23]
2014 Young FathersDead [24]
2015 Benjamin ClementineAt Least for Now [25]
2016 SkeptaKonnichiwa [26]
2017 SamphaProcess [27]
2018 Wolf AliceVisions of a Life [28]

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Dann, Trevor (9 September 2003). "'By the time the list is agreed you wonder whether you like music at all'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  2. "Manics lead Mercury shortlist". BBC News. 27 July 1999. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  3. Gill, Andy (10 September 1992). "The 1992 Mercury Music Prize: Andy Gill looks at the winner of the inaugural Mercury Music Prize". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  4. "The London Suede". MTV. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  5. Hughes, Jack (18 September 1994). "Cries & Whispers". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Mercury winners: where are they now?". Channel 4. 18 July 2007. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  7. MacDonald, Marianne (11 September 1996). "Pulp create a different class of award". The Independent. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  8. "Talvin Singh: Closing the divide". BBC News. 8 September 1999. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  9. Youngs, Ian (30 July 2002). "Mercury Prize's guessing game". BBC News. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  10. "PJ Harvey wins Mercury prize – after witnessing Pentagon attack". The Guardian. 12 September 2001. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  11. Chrisafis, Angelique (18 September 2002). "Ms Dynamite's victory blasts Mercury norms". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  12. Imagee, Matthew (7 September 2004). "Still going strong after Dizzee rise to Mercury's peak". The Scotsman. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  13. Barkham, Patrick (8 September 2004). "Mercury rises for art pop of Franz Ferdinand". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  14. "Arctic Monkeys win 2006 Mercury Music Prize". NME. 5 September 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  15. Pidd, Helen (5 September 2007). "Klaxons are the big noise on Mercury awards night". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  16. Paphides, Pete (10 September 2008). "Pete Paphides salutes Elbow's Mercury Prize victory". The Times. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  17. Swash, Rosie (21 July 2009). "Mercury Prize 2009 Nominations Announced". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
  18. "Mercury Prize 2010 Nominations Announced". NME. 20 July 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  19. Topping, Alexandra (19 July 2011). "Adele leads Mercury prize 2011 shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  20. Butterly, Amelia (13 September 2012). "Plan B hopes for his 'Dizzee Rascal' moment at Mercurys". BBC News. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  21. Topping, Alexandra (2 November 2012). "Mercury prize celebrates 20 years with award for Alt-J's debut album". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  22. Clark, Nick (11 September 2013). "Mercury Prize 2013: List of nominees in full". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  23. "Mercury Prize: James Blake wins with Overgrown". BBC News. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  24. Beauchemin, Molly (30 October 2014). "Young Fathers Win the Mercury Prize". Pitchfork Media. Pitchfork. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  25. "Mercury Prize 2015 shortlist". BBC. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  26. "Mercury Prize 2016: David Bowie gets posthumous nomination". BBC News. 4 August 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  27. Mark Brown (2017-09-14). "Mercury prize 2017 is won by Sampha's Process". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  28. Savage, Mark (2018-07-26). "Arctics and Jorja Smith on Mercury list". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-09-22.

Other websites[change | change source]