12 albums have been selected to celebrate the best of UK and Irish music. On the 22nd of October the Mercury Prize ceremony will be held in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena to announce the winner and who will take home a trophy and an outstanding £25,000 prize fund. Previous winners include Sam Fender for ‘People Watching’, English Teacher for ‘This Could Be Texas’, and Ezra Collective for ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’. Fender took home the win in 2025 but generously donated his prize money to Music Venue Trust. His noble winning speech can be watched below.
For those who don’t know much about the Mercury Prize, they equivocate it to ‘the Booker Prize for literature and the Turner Prize for art’. The aim is to acknowledge artistic achievement over a broad array of music genres.An independent panel of judges have selected the shortlist and will be spending the next few months deciding who will be crowned the Mercury Prize winner of 2026. Albums that were released between the 30th of August 2025 and 17th of July 2026 were all in the running to be entered, but only 12 are shortlisted. The following contenders are:
- Dave – ‘The Boy Who Played the Harp’
- Dove Ellis – ‘Blizzard’
- Florence + the Machine – ‘Everybody Scream’
- JADE – ‘That’s Showbiz Baby!’
- Knats – ‘A Great Day In Newcastle’
- Kojey Radical –’ Don’t Look Down’
- Nia Archives – ‘Emotional Junglist’
- Olivia Dean – ‘The Art of Loving’
- Paul McCartney – ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’
- RAYE – ‘THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE.’
- Suede – ‘Antidepressants’
- War Child Records – ‘HELP(2)’
The Judging team consists of professionals within the music industry who unbiasedly choose the winner based on the quality of the music. This years panellists are:
- AFRODEUTSCHE – Composer, DJ & Radio 3 Unwind & 6 Music Broadcaster
- Danielle Perry – Broadcaster (Absolute Radio & Jazz FM) & Musician
- Jamie Cullum – Musician & Radio 2 Broadcaster; Jeff Smith – Head of Music, Radio 2 & 6 Music
- Lea Stonhill – Music Programming Consultant; MistaJam – Songwriter, DJ & Broadcaster
- MistaJam - Songwriter, DJ & Broadcaster
- Phil Alexander – Creative Director, Kerrang!/Contributing Editor, MOJO
- Sian Eleri – Radio 1 Broadcaster & DJ
- Sophie Williams – Music Writer & Broadcaster
- Will Hodgkinson – Chief Rock & Pop Critic, The Times
- Jeff Smith – The Chair of the judging team
If your favourite artist has been nominated, you can purchase tickets now to go to the award show in Newcastle which will feature live performances from the artists. Alternatively, you can watch the live broadcast on BBC, and in the meantime you can listen to songs from the shortlisted albums on the Mercury Prize’s curated playlist here.
