The full nominations for this year’s Mercury Prize with FREE NOW have been announced.
The annual prize toasts the best in British and Irish music, using albums as a central point of focus. Last year’s winner Arlo Parks enjoyed a stellar boost to her profile, with debut album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ rightly waltzing away with the prize.
The Mercury Prize returns in 2022, with the judging panel assembling to sift through a multitude of releases. For clarity, the judging panel 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 shortlist was shared live on 6Music, with the panel adding:
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 and 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.
Fergus McCreadie ‘Forest Floor’
Gwenno ‘Tresor’
Harry Styles ‘Harry’s House’
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler ‘For All Our Days That Tear the Heart’
Joy Crookes ‘Skin’
Kojey Radical ‘Reason to Smile’
Little Simz ‘Sometimes I Might be Introvert’
Nova Twins ‘Supernova’
Sam Fender ‘Seventeen Going Under’
Self Esteem ‘Prioritise Pleasure’
Wet Leg ‘Wet Leg’
Yard Act ‘The Overload’
The winner of Mercury Prize 2022 will be unveiled on September 8th at a special ceremony in London’s eventim Apollo.
