The Mercury Prize has failed to ‘celebrate the best of British and Irish music’ in 2026.
The Mercury Prize, the UK’s ‘alternative’ to the BRIT Awards, has just revealed its 2026 shortlist.
Every summer since 1992, the Mercury Prize reveals its shortlist of 12 albums that embodied the “best of UK and Irish music” in its 12 month eligibility period and captured the cultural zeitgeist. The potted history of the Mercuries is that it’s supposed to be the cooler, artier upstart cousin to the more established BRITs, an award that supposedly celebrates the ‘merit’, artistry and cultural impact of an album as a body of work, without considering charting success as a major factor, unlike the BRITs.
To this end, the Mercury Prize has been the weathervane pointing the direction the winds of the British musical calendar have blown numerous times: from recognising trip hop and awarding Portishead’s Dummy the top honour in 1995, at the height of Britpop (a decision Britpop leading man Noel Gallagher of Oasis endorsed) to more recent delightful moments, like when a burgeoning Little Simz established herself as the queen of British rap by winning the 2021 Mercury Prize with her sixth album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, or when Wolf Alice finally heralded a shift in public favour back toward the rock band upon winning the 2018 Mercury Prize, a decision that brought longtime NME correspondent, rock lover and biographer for big rock bands like Muse and The Killers, Mark Beaumont, to tears.
Another similar moment was Ezra Collective picking up the prize in 2023 for their brilliant album Where I’m Meant To Be, gaining nationwide acceptance for their form of fusion jazz, working with electronic artists, rappers, hip hop artists, fellow jazz musicians and many more. In their acceptance speech, bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso talked about the group’s beginnings in youth clubs and the power music had to save young people’s lives. They also became the first jazz album to ever win the Mercury, finally putting firmly in their place any jazz traditionalist naysayers that rubbished neo-jazz as bastardised or less.
Often, it wasn’t even necessary for an album to win the Mercury Prize to tell the world that winds of change were blowing. As a ceremony that was televised nationally, the Mercury Prize was successfully able to tell the nation and the rest of the concerned world of the comeback of post punk and guitar music in 2019, where even though they didn’t win, debutantes black midi, who were nominated for their breakthrough album Schlagenheim, delivered one of the most memorable Mercury Prize ceremony performances in recent history.
To watch the late Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin fall all over the stage with a hunger and desperation to perform in his guitar playing, run across the stage and do a flip, and then run nose-first into eventual winner Dave’s piano (to audible winces from the audience) is a moment that still gives those who tuned in shivers. Other nominees that year included IDLES and Fontaines D.C. The world was in for a reckoning from guitar music again, and what Wolf Alice had set up the previous year in being recognised for holding down the fort for guitar music for the last decade, bands like black midi had walked up to that stage at the Apollo in London, dared anyone in the room to stop them and picked up the baton.
Another similar moment was Ezra Collective picking up the prize in 2023 for their brilliant album Where I’m Meant To Be, gaining nationwide acceptance for their form of fusion jazz, working with electronic artists, rappers, hip hop artists, fellow jazz musicians and many more. In their acceptance speech, bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso talked about the group’s beginnings in youth clubs and the power music had to save young people’s lives. They also became the first jazz album to ever win the Mercury, finally putting firmly in their place any jazz traditionalist naysayers that rubbished neo-jazz as bastardised or less.
Often, it wasn’t even necessary for an album to win the Mercury Prize to tell the world that winds of change were blowing. As a ceremony that was televised nationally, the Mercury Prize was successfully able to tell the nation and the rest of the concerned world of the comeback of post punk and guitar music in 2019, where even though they didn’t win, debutantes black midi, who were nominated for their breakthrough album Schlagenheim, delivered one of the most memorable Mercury Prize ceremony performances in recent history.
To watch the late Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin fall all over the stage with a hunger and desperation to perform in his guitar playing, run across the stage and do a flip, and then run nose-first into eventual winner Dave’s piano (to audible winces from the audience) is a moment that still gives those who tuned in shivers. Other nominees that year included IDLES and Fontaines D.C. The world was in for a reckoning from guitar music again, and what Wolf Alice had set up the previous year in being recognised for holding down the fort for guitar music for the last decade, bands like black midi had walked up to that stage at the Apollo in London, dared anyone in the room to stop them and picked up the baton.
2024 was a turning point for the Mercury Prize. For the first time in its 30-year history, the most prestigious prize in British music found itself without a sponsor. The Prize wasn’t necessarily known for bringing big names that draw eyeballs and spotlighting them, after all. The Mercuries operate on the philosophy that art is the true winner, and so no nominee is a loser. All 12 shortlisted artists receive the Mercury Prize trophy and the unveiling of the shortlist. The award is only decided on the night of the ceremony, with jurors from different sectors of the industry gathered around a table to argue their preferred album’s merits. The only difference, apart from a boost in name recognition and a myth of bad luck with creativity and success following the win (Portishead 1995, Pulp 1996, to name a few) is the £25,000 prize the ‘winner’ takes home on the night, which is supposed to go towards the artist’s development. No, the Mercury Prize was never meant to celebrate the music industry’s stars. It is here to announce the arrival of its future.
2024 was a turning point for the Mercury Prize. For the first time in its 30-year history, the most prestigious prize in British music found itself without a sponsor. The Prize wasn’t necessarily known for bringing big names that draw eyeballs and spotlighting them, after all. The Mercuries operate on the philosophy that art is the true winner, and so no nominee is a loser. All 12 shortlisted artists receive the Mercury Prize trophy and the unveiling of the shortlist. The award is only decided on the night of the ceremony, with jurors from different sectors of the industry gathered around a table to argue their preferred album’s merits. The only difference, apart from a boost in name recognition and a myth of bad luck with creativity and success following the win (Portishead 1995, Pulp 1996, to name a few) is the £25,000 prize the ‘winner’ takes home on the night, which is supposed to go towards the artist’s development. No, the Mercury Prize was never meant to celebrate the music industry’s stars. It is here to announce the arrival of its future.
As a natural consequence, the 2024 ceremony found itself without a sponsor or broadcaster. In a much more low profile event of artists gathered in Abbey Road studios without a live audience, Leeds indie rockers English Teacher walked home with the prize. In another moment of reckoning, the completely shocked band found themselves breaking a nearly decade-long streak of winners from London. English Teacher came to the night with a refreshing lack of media training: their instagram posts from the night include shaky pictures of the free drinks at their table, they were in complete shock and speechless on stage, and it was one of the most endearing moments from the ceremony. It was also a harbinger of a shift away from the industry’s London-centricity: the following year, the Mercury Prize ceremony moved out to Newcastle, where it currently resides.
I’d said this on radio last year, but Sam Fender winning the Mercury Prize at home in Newcastle was bound to inspire many young kids from the area to pick up a guitar and believe that they too could achieve the heights Sam has touched while being outside the London core, and bring more of the country and the world’s attention to the music of Newcastle. 2026 has already seen the rise of a new Newcastle star, Tom A. Smith, who I can best describe as a Geordie rock n roll Gary Numan. This year’s shortlist sees two Newcastle-based artists, the jazz group Knats (with an album that pays a nod to its home in its very title, A Great Day In Newcastle) and former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall.
Which brings me to the 2026 Mercury Prize shortlist. 2019 winner Dave continues to wow award jurors with The Boy Who Played The Harp, which picked up multiple nominations at the BRIT Awards this year for its sensitive portrayal of manhood. Olivia Dean, arguably one of the biggest artists in the world right now and who swept not just the BRIT Awards but also won Best New Artist at the Grammy’s, picked up the nomination for The Art Of Loving. Raye, who won a record-breaking 6 BRIT Awards and Grammys for her debut album My 21st Century Blues, picked up a nomination for This Music May Contain Hope. Paul McCartney earned his first Mercury nomination for The Boys Of Dungeon Lane. Nia Archives, who was nominated for her debut album Silence Is Loud in 2024, continues to be the only jungle artist after 1997 winner Ronnie Size to be nominated for the prize with Emotional Junglist. Kojey Radical earns a nomination for Don’t Look Down, no doubt an emotional upheaval in the story arc of an album cycle that saw Kojey find himself weighed down by doubt to the point of contemplating quitting music.
Elsewhere, veterans Florence + The Machine and Suede return to the Mercuries, War Child’s stunning charity fundraising compilation album Help (2) picked up a nomination as well, perhaps a first for a compilation album. And Irish songwriter Dove Ellis, touted by artists like Geese as an opener in Europe last year, picked up a nod for his beautiful debut album, Blizzard.
These are all incredible albums with merit and beauty that deserve your time in listening to them in full. There is an argument to be made that an award that doesn’t concern itself with commercial success should be free to pick the biggest names in celebration of British and Irish music, because they just happen to be the best artists in the countries right now.
On the other hand, I did accidentally call it the ‘BRIT Award nominations’ in conversation with music friends today. Twice.
Shaad Magazine reported an interesting statistic: 11 out of 12 of this year’s shortlisted albums were released through one of the big three major labels (Sony, Universal or Warner) or a subsidiary owned by them. The only album not directly under the Big Three is Suede’s Antidepressants, released on BMG, which considers itself the “fourth major label”. (Raye is famously independent after a long and painful struggle with her former label Polydor, which she left before launching herself into superstardom independently, but as a musician operating on the scale of a hugely successful artist, understandably distributes through Sony.)
Dove Ellis has the only debut album on this list. Knats, Nia Archives, Olivia Dean and Raye have been nominated for their second albums. Olivia and Raye are some of the biggest stars on the planet, Nia Archives’ song ‘Baianá’ soundtracked a major car commercial during the FIFA World Cup this summer.
This year’s Mercury Prize list felt different to before. It seems to have lost its appetite for fighting the underdog’s corner. Sure, it’s a delightful story to read that ol’ Paul McCartney has finally, finally earned his Mercury nomination, but there’s good reason for why he may not have been considered before: 35 years ago, in 1992, Paul McCartney was already one of the biggest rockstars on the planet. He never needed the boost the Mercury Prize brought. When Pulp won the Prize in 1996, it was on the back of ‘Common People’ having taken the world by storm after Pulp were unexpectedly promoted to the headline slot at Glastonbury festival in 1995 when the Stone Roses had to pull out with a last-minute collarbone fracture. Franz Ferdinand won in 2004 after ‘Take Me Out’ made them one of the biggest artists in the indie world, only topped by when Arctic Monkeys won it two years later on the back of similarly astronomical success.
2006 was also the last year programmes like Top Of The Pops broadcast regularly on the BBC. Over the intervening 20 years, opportunities to highlight emerging artists in the mainstream have rapidly dwindled. Everyone can be the king of their own niche castle, darlings of the Windmill, heroes of their own niche hashtag on TikTok.
Music Venue Trust head Mark Davyd wrote a brilliant piece on his substack about how programmes like Top Of The Pops thrust unsuspecting indie darlings like Pulp into the mainstream spotlight, Pulp who had been toiling on the scene for over 15 years when Glastonbury and ‘Common People’s chart success took them to the BBC’s flagship chart countdown TV programme, and placed them before a viewership of 11 million. On primetime hour, before a whole nation, not spread out across the globe in places a small band would never feasibly tour until they were already big.
That kind of exposure simply doesn’t exist today, outside of very select opportunities like the BBC’s Later… With Jools Holland, for example. With the BRIT Awards being the playground of established acts and popular genres, the Mercury Prize felt like one of the few remaining places where an artist could come from nothing, have put up a good fight and have it noticed and celebrated before the entire nation. This year’s Mercury Prize list feels like a reset to the BRITs format: record labels celebrating themselves.
There are incredible independent and smaller artists that were snubbed this year: post punk reggae funsters Pigeon deserved a nod. Joshua Idehen deserved it too. Kneecap, who have somehow managed their dizzying takeover of the world from the tiny offices of Heavenly Recordings, missed out on a nod despite the U.K. administration seemingly unable to shut up about them all year (also notably, in 35 years, no Irish album has ever won the Prize, something that was glaringly obvious when CMAT and Fontaines D.C., who were tipped as favourites for the 2025 Prize, were passed over for hometown hero Sam Fender). Lime Garden released one of the most crushingly relatable anthems about being 23 this year, and Cardiff punks Panic Shack’s ode to the Welsh night out all deserved nominations too, but were overlooked for albums that have already been celebrated time and time again this year.
In my eyes, the only way the Mercuries can right this departure from their image as a champion of independence, a celebration of merit and cultural impact, would be if one of the smaller artists won it. Despite the nod, I think we know enough about how the Mercuries like to think to know Paul McCartney probably won’t win the 2026 Prize. It’s a great bit of publicity, to be frank, a lovely light story. I’d want to see Knats win it, or maybe Dove Ellis. Knats, better known for their drummer David King playing in Geordie Greep’s live band, perhaps might not have enough of a share of the national public conversation to win the whole thing. Dove Ellis? In a year that Geese have dominated the talk in indie music circles, Blizzard might stand a chance of winning.
If not him, then perhaps Nia Archives could have only the second ever jungle album to win it. Raye could tell the powerful story of a woman who walked away in the face of abuse and won. It is a story we have applauded at the BRITs and Grammys before, though.
I should say. I like all these albums. I have reviewed them for the BRITs. They all have their merit. My complaints are no shade on the artists and their music. It’s more about the taste left in the mouth by a Prize that had slowly seen its role morph into that of one of the last bastions for celebrating independence on the biggest platforms in the country, instead give in to regurgitating a story we have told before. It’s a loss of spaces that are ever decreasing. And that is truly disappointing.
(This article’s length is partly due to the fact that I have no signals (and incredible distraction-free concentration) on a 7-hour bus ride. It has pretty much been written from memory, and rapidly fact-checked and published in a fifteen minute patch of signals. If there are any typos or formatting mistakes, that’s what I’m blaming. Now I’m off to go stare into the hollowness of the vast countryside.)
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