Mercury Prize

The Mercury Prize, currently known as the Nationwide Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best British or Irish album of the previous 12 months. It was established by the BPI and BARD (the British Association of Record Dealers) in 1992 as an alternative to the industry-dominated BRIT Awards. It was originally sponsored by the now-defunct telecoms company Mercury, followed in 1998 by Technics and starting in 2004 the Nationwide Building Society [1]. It is often observed that bands who are nominated for, or indeed win the prize experience a large increase in album sales, particularly for the lesser known nominees.

Shortlists

Each year's winner is in bold.

2006

• Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
• Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Ballad of the Broken Seas
• Editors – The Back Room
• Guillemots – Through the Windowpane
• Richard Hawley – Coles Corner
• Hot Chip – The Warning
• Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
• Zoe Rahman – Melting Pot
• Lou Rhodes – Beloved One
• Scritti Politti – White Bread Black Beer
• Sway – This Is My Demo
• Thom Yorke – The Eraser

2005

• Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
• Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
• Coldplay – X&Y
• HARD-Fi – Stars of CCTV
• Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
• KT Tunstall – Eye to the Telescope
• M.I.A. – Arular
• Maxïmo Park – A Certain Trigger
• Polar Bear – Held on the Tips of Fingers
• Seth Lakeman – Kitty Jay
• The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightning, Strike
• The Magic Numbers – The Magic Numbers

2004

• Basement Jaxx – Kish Kash
• Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress
• Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
• Jamelia – Thank You
• Keane – Hopes and Fears
• Snow Patrol – Final Straw
• Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions
• The Streets – A Grand Don't Come for Free
• Ty – Upwards
• Amy Winehouse – Frank
• Robert Wyatt – Cuckooland
• The Zutons – Who Killed...... The Zutons?

2003

• Athlete – Vehicles and Animals
• Eliza Carthy – Anglicana
• Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
• The Darkness – Permission to Land
• Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
• Floetry – Floetic
• Soweto Kinch – Conversations with the Unseen
• Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons
• The Thrills – So Much for the City
• Martina Topley-Bird – Quixotic
• Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
• Terri Walker – Untitled

2002

• Guy Barker – Soundtrack
• The Bees – Sunshine Hit Me
• David Bowie – Heathen
• The Coral – The Coral
• Doves – The Last Broadcast
• The Electric Soft Parade – Holes in the Wall
• Gemma Hayes – Night on my Side
• Beverley Knight – Who I Am
• Roots Manuva – Run Come Save Me
• Joanna MacGregor – Play
• Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper
• The Streets – Original Pirate Material

2001

• Basement Jaxx – Rooty
• Elbow – Asleep in the Back
• Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain
• Gorillaz – Gorillaz (nomination withdrawn at the request of the band)
• Ed Harcourt – Here Be Monsters
• PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
• Tom McRae – Tom McRae
• Radiohead – Amnesiac
• Susheela Raman – Salt Rain
• Super Furry Animals – Rings Around the World
• Turin Brakes – The Optimist LP
• Zero 7 – Simple Things

2000

• Richard Ashcroft – Alone with Everybody
• Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
• Coldplay – Parachutes
• MJ Cole – Sincere
• Death in Vegas – The Contino Sessions
• The Delgados – The Great Eastern
• Doves – Lost Souls
• Helicopter Girl – How to Steal the World
• Leftfield – Rhythm and Stealth
• Nicholas Maw – Violin Concerto
• Nitin Sawhney – Beyond Skin
• Kathryn Williams – Little Black Numbers

1999

• Thomas Adès – Asyla
• Denys Baptiste – Be Where You Are
• Black Star Liner – Bengali Bantam Youth Experience!
• Blur – 13
• Chemical Brothers – Surrender
• Faithless – Sunday 8PM
• Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
• Beth Orton – Central Reservation
• Kate Rusby – Sleepless
• Talvin Singh – Ok
• Stereophonics – Performance and Cocktails
• Underworld – Beaucoup Fish

1998

• 4hero – Two Pages
• Asian Dub Foundation – Rafi's Revenge
• Eliza Carthy – Red Rice
• Catatonia – International Velvet
• Cornershop – When I Was Born for the 7th Time
• Gomez – Bring It On
• Massive Attack – Mezzanine
• Propellerheads – Decksandrumsandrockandroll
• Pulp – This Is Hardcore
• John Surman – Proverbs & Songs
• The Verve – Urban Hymns
• Robbie Williams – Life Thru a Lens

1997

• The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
• Beth Orton – Trailer Park
• Primal Scream – Vanishing Point
• The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land
• Radiohead – OK Computer
• Roni Size/Reprazent – New Forms
• The Spice Girls – Spice
• Suede – Coming Up
• John Tavener – Syvati
• Mark-Anthony Turnage – Your Rockaby

1996

• Artists for War Child – Help
• Black Grape – It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah
• Peter Maxwell Davies/BBC Philharmonic – The Beltane Fire / Caroline Mathilde
• Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go
• Mark Morrison – Return of the Mack
• Oasis – (What's the Story) Morning Glory
• Courtney Pine – Modern Day Jazz Stories
• Pulp – Different Class
• Underworld – Second Toughest In The Infants
• Norma Waterson – Norma Waterson

1995

• Guy Barker – Into the Blue
• Elastica – Elastica
• PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
• Leftfield – Leftism
• James MacMillan – Seven Last Words from the Cross
• Van Morrison – Days Like These
• Oasis – Definitely Maybe
• Portishead – Dummy
• Supergrass – I Should Coco
• Tricky – Maxinquaye

1994

• M People – Elegant Slumming
• Blur – Parklife
• Ian McNabb – Head Like A Rock
• Shara Nelson – What Silence Knows
• Michael Nyman – The Piano Concerto and MGV
• The Prodigy – Music for the Jilted Generation
• Pulp – His'n'Hers
• Take That – Everything Changes
• Therapy? – Troublegum
• Paul Weller – Wild Wood

1993

• Apache Indian – No Reservations
• The Auteurs – New Wave
• Gavin Bryars – Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
• Dina Carroll – So Close
• PJ Harvey – Rid of Me
• New Order – Republic
• Stereo MC's – Connected
• Sting – Ten Summoner's Tales
• Suede – Suede
• Stan Tracey – Portraits Plus

1992

• Barry Adamson – Soul Murder
• Jah Wobble – Rising Above Bedlam
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Honey's Dead
• Bheki Mseleku – Celebration
• Primal Scream – Screamadelica
• Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha
• Simply Red – Stars
• U2 – Achtung Baby
• John Tavener & Steven Isserlis –The Protecting Veil
• Young Disciples – Road To Freedom

Controversy

Some journalists reporting on British music state that the winning album is not always representative of prevailing trends in popular music. One example is the 1994 awards where what would prove to be popular albums from Britpop figureheads Paul Weller, Blur and Pulp, and electronica leaders The Prodigy were shortlisted but the winners were the popular dance act M People.

Other music journalists critical of the awards stated that the 2005 award should not have been given to Antony and the Johnsons because they were a British-born and American-based act. According to Planet Sound, this may have occurred again in 2006 as Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell's Ballad of the Broken Seas was included in the shortlist, despite Lanegan not being British and fellow 2006 nominees Guillemots had band members from Brazil and Canada.

Trivia

The 2001 awards occurred on September 11, and when it was announced that PJ Harvey had won the prize for her album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Harvey herself was staying in a hotel in Washington DC which overlooked The Pentagon, which had been hit by one of the hijacked aeroplanes.

See also

• Shortlist Music Prize
• Choice Music Prize
• Polaris Music Prize

External links

• 2007 nominees
• Mercury Music Prize Official Site
• Alternate listings
• Full listing of previous years' nominations and winners
• BBC Mercury Prize page, 2006