News - Mercury Prize Nominations

The 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Albums of the Year’ nominations have been announced. Listen to a track from each of the albums ...

Press Release

The Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Albums of the Year’ celebrate and promote the best of British & Irish music recognising artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres. The shortlist was chosen by an independent judging panel and was revealed at a launch event, hosted by BBC Music’s Huw Stephens yesterday.

The shortlisted albums are:

Fergus McCreadie ‘Forest Floor’

Listen to Law Hill below




Gwenno ‘Tresor’

Here's the title track of the album

Harry Styles ‘Harry’s House’

Here's Late Night Talking which just came out a couple of weeks ago

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler ‘For All Our Days That Tear the Heart’

Here's the title track from the album

Joy Crookes ‘Skin’

Here's the title track from this, her debut album

Kojey Radical ‘Reason to Smile’

Here's the track Talkin' from this, another debut album

Little Simz ‘Sometimes I Might be Introvert’

Listen to Introvert below

Nova Twins ‘Supernova’

Here's Choose Your Fighter

Sam Fender ‘Seventeen Going Under’

[If all was right with the world, this album should win - Ed]

Self Esteem ‘Prioritise Pleasure’

Here's the title track

Wet Leg ‘Wet Leg’

Listen to Ur Mum

Yard Act ‘The Overload’

Rounding off an eclectic mix with their title track 

The 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW judges are: Anna Calvi – Musician & Songwriter; Annie MacManus – Broadcaster & DJ; Danielle Perry – Broadcaster & Writer; Hazel Wilde (from Lanterns on the Lake) - Musician & Songwriter; Jamie Cullum - Musician & Broadcaster; Jamz Supernova – Broadcaster & DJ; Jeff Smith - Head of Music, 6 Music & Radio 2; Lea Stonhill – Music Programmer, Radio X; Loyle Carner – Musician & Songwriter; Phil Alexander – Creative Director, Kerrang!/Contributing Editor, Mojo; Tshepo Mokoena – Music Writer & Author; Will Hodgkinson - Chief Rock & Pop Critic, The Times. The Chair of the judging panel is Jeff Smith.

The judges said 'Getting down to 12 albums this year was not easy, simply because there were so many remarkable ones to choose from. That serves as proof that British & Irish music thrives during unsettled periods in history, with the albums chosen covering everything from imaginative pop to pioneering rap to Cornish language folk-rock. We feel that these 12 amazing albums each have something to say artistically and socially, all in their own unique, enriching ways. Now comes the really hard part... choosing only one overall winner’.

The 2022 Awards Show will take place on Thursday 8th September at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith. The event will feature live performances from many of the shortlisted artists and the evening will culminate in the announcement of the overall winner of the 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW ‘Album of the Year’. Tickets are available fromwww.eventimapollo.com

Image - Mercury Prize