Mercury Prize 2025 moves North: Here is the Shortlist
Unveiled in September, the 2025 Mercury Prize shortlist mixes old favourites with fresh faces, genre-benders and legendary acts. The albums running are now signalling change, age and grit. Here is the list of who’s in:
· CMAT — Euro-Country
· Emma-Jean Thackray — Weirdo
· FKA twigs — Eusexua
· Fontaines D.C. — Romance
· Jacob Alon — In Limerence (debut)
· Joe Webb — Hamstrings & Hurricanes (another debut)
· Martin Carthy — Transform Me Then Into A Fish (84 years old; oldest nominee ever)
· Pa Salieu — Afrikan Alien
· PinkPantheress — Fancy That (a mixtape)
· Pulp — More (their first in ~20+ years)
· Sam Fender — People Watching
· Wolf Alice — The Clearing
The awards show will be held on October 16 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, and this is the first time the Mercury Prize has been staged outside London.
But what do these finalists tells us? With the oldest Mercury Prize nominee ever at 84, Martin Carthy reminds us that artistic voice does not have an expiry date; similarly, Pulp are nominated with their first album in 24 years. The list though expands beyond legacy acts to include two debut albums, suggesting that the Mercury Prize honours bold newcomers equally with established names. There is a spread of genres, from pop to jazz to folk to indie, a mixtape, male/female/non-binary artists from across the UK and a symbolic move to Newcastle to show that the Prize is in support of more regional inclusion in UK music culture.
Mercury remains one of the few prizes that values albums not for chart position but for artistic merit and recognises novel and boundary-pushing works over commercial stats. Seeing names from different stages on the same shortlist encourages listeners to bridge genres and eras, to expand their listening taste to different styles and to mirror the culture of British and Irish music for what it is.
Which album is your favourite one?
BY: CHARIS LYDIA BAGIOKI
