It’s that time again. Twelve artists, twelve albums, one panel hiding away in a backroom to crowd a victor as the best record from the United Kingdom and Ireland in the last twelve months. The 2023 Mercury Prize with FREENOW is quite possibly the most illustrious prize in our domestic music scene, and tonight we’ll be finding out who will walk away with this year’s gong (and £25k cheque, ‘FYI’). As ever, we’ll be on the ground – and elsewhere – bringing you the best of the action via our very spiffy and not-at-all-a-bad-idea live blog. We’re sorry in advance.
The Mercury Prize is designed to celebrate music across all genres. Established in 1992, this year’s prize is open to albums released between 16th July 2022 and 14th July 2023. Last year’s award was won by Little Simz, for her fourth album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’, after previously being nominated for her 2019 album ‘Grey Area’ in 2019.
This year’s shortlist reads:
Arctic Monkeys – The Car
Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant to Be
Fred again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)
J Hus – Beautiful And Brutal Yard
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B
Lankum – False Lankum
Loyle Carner – hugo
Olivia Dean – Messy
RAYE – My 21st Century Blues
Shygirl – Nymph
Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy
Tune in below for updates from the ceremony.
