For British and Irish musicians, the annual Mercury Prize is one of the top awards they can dream of winning. Any album released from any genre is eligible, for an independent panel of figures from the UK and Ireland’s music industry to choose a shortlist of the best albums of the year before a winner. Previous winners include Franz Ferdinand, Skepta, and Arctic Monkeys.
This year’s shortlist was announced on September 10, with previous winners Wolf Alice and Pulp headlining the 2025 nominees. The former’s new album The Clearing is the group’s fourth nomination for the award, and the quartet have become the first band to have all four of their first albums to be nominated. Should they win, they’d join PJ Harvey in being the only artists to win the award twice.
Should [Wolf Alice] win, they’d join PJ Harvey in being the only artists to win the award twice.
Pulp are nominated for More, their first album in 24 years, 29 years after winning the award for Different Class. Fellow northerner Sam Fender is also nominated, following up his 2022 nomination for Seventeen Going Under with this year’s People Watching.
A focus outside London has characterised this edition of British and Irish music’s top award. Last year’s prize was awarded to Leeds-based English Teacher’s This Could Be Texas, and this year’s ceremony will be hosted in Newcastle for the first time. Welsh Jazz musician Joe Webb is nominated for his album Hamstrings and Hurricanes, and Scot Jacob Alon’s debut album In Limerence is on the shortlist too.
The shortlist also has two Irish nominees: Fontaines DC’s Romance, the Dublin band’s evolution away from the Irish political themes which defined their earlier efforts; and CMAT’s EURO-COUNTRY, which, as you’d imagine, juggles pop and country and provided some of 2025’s biggest festival hits.
At 84 years old, Martin Carthy is the oldest ever nominee for his folk album Transform Me Then into a Fish. In stark contrast, 24-year-old PinkPantheress is nominated for her mixtape Fancy That, which at nine tracks and just 20 minutes has become one of the shortest nominated projects in the award’s history.
24-year-old PinkPantheress is nominated for her mixtape Fancy That … one of the shortest nominated projects in the award’s history.
Also nominated is FKA Twigs’ third album Eusexua, a futuristic and experimental album based on deconstructed club tacks. Emma-Jean Thackray’s grief-inspired Weirdo and Pa Salieu’s Afrikan Alien round off the list of nominees.
Throughout the Mercury Prize’s history, winning has had explosively positive effects on the artists that claim the prize. The day after The xx’s self-titled debut album won the award in 2010, sales of the record rose by 450%. Elbow frontman Guy Garvey described it as ‘quite literally the best thing that’s ever happened to us’ in the aftermath of their win in 2009.
This year’s winner will be announced during the awards ceremony on Thursday 16th October at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, so keep your eyes peeled!
Here are the nominees in full:
- CMAT, Euro-Country
- Emma-Jean Thackray, Weirdo
- FKA twigs, Eusexua
- Fontaines DC, Romance
- Jacob Alon, In Limerence
- Joe Webb, Hamstrings and Hurricanes
- Martin Carthy, Transform Me Then Into a Fish
- Pa Salieu, Afrikan Alien
- PinkPantheress, Fancy That
- Pulp, More
- Sam Fender, People Watching
- Wolf Alice, The Clearing
