Lola Young has picked up the most nominations this year, including ‘Best Song Musically and Lyrically’ for her hit track ‘Messy’, ‘Best Album’ for her record ‘This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway’, and the ‘Rising Star’ award.

The ex-Brit School student shot to fame with her toxic relationship love song, ‘Messy’, which reached No. 1 in January, also topping worldwide charts including Australia and Ireland.

At the Ivors 2024, RAYE took home the ‘Songwriter Of The Year’ award. This year, she’s also nominated in the ‘Best Song Musically And Lyrically’ for her tune ‘Genesis’, and in the running for ‘Most Performed Work’ for ‘Prada’, a collaboration between her, Cassö, and D-Block Europe.

Charli XCX is also in the race for the ‘Best Album’ award with her rave-influenced record ‘BRAT’ that took the world by storm in 2024. Other names in the ring for the award are UK rapper/grime legend Ghetts with his highly praised fourth album ‘On Purpose, With Purpose’, and multi-talented musician/producer Berwyn, with his debut studio album ‘WHO AM I’.

Ghetts has also scored a shot at the ‘Best Contemporary Song’ category with his tune ‘Double Standards (feat. Sampha), his second nomination of this year’s awards. Other artists in contention for this prize include JADE with ‘Angel of My Dreams’, Sans Soucis with ‘Circumnavigating Georgia’, Bashy with ‘How Black Men Lose Their Smile’ and Pa Saileu with ‘Allergy’.

In March, it was announced that U2 would receive ‘Fellowship Of The Ivors Academy’, the highest honour that the organization can give. This places the band alongside iconic names such as Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen, who was the first international songwriter to receive the award last year.

This year marks the 70^th anniversary of the illustrious awards. The Ivors were made to celebrate the craft and artistry of songwriters. They are judged peer-to-peer by songwriters and composers, for songwriters and composers, rather than by industry representatives or broader audiences.

Tom Gray, Chair of The Ivors Academy, shared his excitement for the 2025 Ivors: “Everyone knows The Ivors are the most joyful celebration of music making in the calendar. Many of the most talented and creative people on the planet get together to celebrate each other’s exceptional originality and craft. Congratulations to all of the remarkable nominees this year. It’s a huge privilege for The Ivors Academy to champion music creation in all its forms.”

Roberto Neri, Chief Executive of The Ivors Academy, also said: “An Ivor Novello Award holds a unique place in music, as it is judged by fellow songwriters and composers, making it the most respected acknowledgement of creative excellence. We are proud to welcome and celebrate the nominees’ achievements and look forward to honouring their work at the 70th edition of The Ivors in May.”

The full list of nominees can be seen below:

Best album

Best contemporary song

Best song musically and lyrically

Most performed work

Rising star

Best original film score

Best original video game score

Best television soundtrack

Other artists to feature on the list for the prestigious award are Scottish electronic DJ and Producer Barry Can’t Swim, Jungle artist Nia Archives, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, Corinne Bailey Rae, and grime artist Ghetts. The remaining nominees are Berwyn, Cat Burns, CMAT, Corto.alto, and English Teacher.

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The full list of Albums nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize are:

Barry Can’t Swim – When Will We Land?

Berwyn – Who Am I

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

Cat Burns – Early Twenties

Charli XCX – Brat

CMAT – Crazymad, For Me

Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows

Corto.alto – Bad With Names

English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

Ghetts – On Purpose, With Purpose

Nia Archives – Silence Is Loud

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy

The mercury Prize is undoubtedly a great opportunity for up-and-coming artists. So, it therefore makes sense that the list of nominees this year has been dominated by debuts with 8 of the 12 albums nominated being debuts which is double what it was last year.

One of the debut albums on the list being The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ and this is the biggest selling album so far on the list, however, Charli XCX’ ‘Brat’ has momentum at the moment and is likely to overtake ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ this week.

Among the eight debut albums that made the list this year is Beth Gibbon’s ‘Lives Outgrown. Although Gibbons has released numerous albums as a member of Portishead this record is her debut as a solo artist. According to Music Week Gibbons said: “Really great surprise to be part of the 12 Mercury albums of the year, something I never expected. Big thanks to all who have supported the album, it means so much.”

Nominees Charli XCX, Corinne Bailey Rae and Ghetts have all been nominated for the Mercury Prize before but none of them have won the award.

The list of nominees, as well as the winner, has been chosen by an independent Judging panel and has been taken from a wide range of genres. Albums released by British and Irish artists between July 15, 2023, and July 12, 2024, were eligible for the award.

Earlier in the week it was revealed that the traditional award ceremony with live performances has been dropped this year. More details of what this entails are set to be revealed closer to when the winner is announced but Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of the BPI, home to the Mercury Prize, said: “For the 2024 Mercury Prize we will work imaginatively with the BBC to deliver a premium programme of music content and digital engagement that will, as ever, benefit all 12 artists in reaching a wider audience, providing an important platform for their evolving career and musical journey.”

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Somerset House is an arts complex built around a beautiful courtyard, situated in the centre of the capital. They are dedicated to backing progress, championing openness, nurturing creativity and empowering ideas. Somerset houses summer series returns this year after a break due to the global pandemic, the series returns with 11 nights of gigs from inspiring artists.

The 11 nights will all be held in the Somerset house courtyard, which will be transformed into an open-air gig destination, and will hold a vibrant festival in the centre of the countries capital. The 11 nights will include performances from Nigerian songstress Tems, Squid, Yussef Dayes, Bomba Estereo, Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen, The Brits Best Newcomer Arlo Parks, Black Midi, the previously mentioned Ghetts, SG Lewis, RnB legend John Legend and a night hosted by the fashion brand Places + Faces.

Ghetts last London show was at the London Roundhouse and sold in just under 2 hours. Ghetts is an artist who always puts on a show, his last tour saw him joined on the stage by Giggs, Pa Salieu and Kano.

When announcing his upcoming show at Somerset house the rapper uploaded a compilation of his last tour alongside a caption that read, “NEXT LONDON SHOW. SOMERSET HOUSE. TICKET LINK IN MY BIO.  Some of you guys lacked the last London show, tickets were sold out in under two hours and you watched the shows via Instagram saying you wish you were there, well I wish you were there to”.

 

 

 

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Ghetts has had an incredible 2021 having released his latest album Conflict of inters which was the rappers highest-charting project debuting on the charts at number two. As well as this the rapper recently picked up his first Mobo awards at this year’s award show taking home the prize for ‘The best male’.

The Somerset house summer series is set to kick off on the 7th of July with Ghetts taking over the stage on the 14th. Tickets are available to preorder here, with general sale set to release at 10 am on Thursday the 9th December 2021.

The night’s show was kicked off by a performance by Mobo nominee Bree runway who performed her track “Hot Hot”. Ghetts own the first award of the night, Best male, a very deserving winner who is a forefather of the UK rap scene and has been a part of the scene for well over 10 years. His project Conflict of interest was released this year and charted at 2nd in the official charts the legendary rappers highest-ever chart position. Little Simz picked up Best female for a year that saw her release her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a project that gained Simz her highest chart position at 4th.

Central Cee was the only artist to win multiple awards, picking up best newcomer alongside his best drill award. The rappers year has seen him go from somewhat an unknown to one of the biggest rappers not only in the UK but globally with the rapper and his team making an impact globally with Central having appeared on tracks alongside French and Italian artists. Best hip hop was won by the biggest duo in the UK D-block Europe the duo picked up the award just a few days after their sold-out shows at the London 02, another artist who recently performed at their headline sold-out show in the 02 was best African music act recipient Wizkid who also took home the award for the best international act. Grime legend Skepta picked up the best grime act while Cleo Sol picked up the award for best R&b/soul act.

With so many impressive albums coming out o the UK in 2021 the award was anyways to call, but the UK rap heavyweight Dave snatched it up for his project We’re all alone in this together, a project that sat at number 1 and sold a staggering 72,000 copies in its first week of release. The song of the year went to Tion Wayne and Russ millions ”Body” remix, the record-breaking track helped the duo gain their first number 1 singles as well as the first number for the UK drill genre, the track didn’t only dominate the UK sitting at number 1 for three consecutive weeks but went viral across TikTok making it a global phenom. M1llionz video for “lagga” earned the northwest Birmingham rapper his first award.

Away from music Chunk and Yung filly picked up the award for best media personalities, Michael Ward won the best performance in a tv show/film for his performance as Franklyn in the BBC drama ‘Small Axe’, and Boxing legend Frank Bruno was the inspiration award honouree.

The UK music scene and the black music scene in particular has had an incredible year, and this was all on show at this year’s Mobos, performance from Coventry local Pa salieu, Ghetts, NSH and more were just an example of the raw talent that this country and the scene in general holds.

The award show was live-streamed on Youtube and is available to watch in full here:

After walking on stage and delivering his track “Squeeze” on his own, a tank was brought on stage for him to sit atop while running through the album cuts. His first guest of the night, grime legend Dizzee Rascal, joined him for album track “Fire and Brimstone”, spitting the adlibs as he wasn’t an original feature on the track. For “Sonya”, Ghetts was joined by Emeli Sande, curveballing a slow track amidst the albums typical high energy. The pacing of the show was praised, as Ghetts managed to balance the plethora of energies from the album. Listen to “Sonya” below:

Despite these two features being enough for a gig at the Roundhouse, Ghetts went even further to bring on Suspect on “Houdini”, Shakka on “Know my Ting”, and to complete this embarrasment of riches, grime legend Kano on “Class of Deja”. Bringing on both Kano and Dizzee for the same set, two stars that propelled grime into the force that it became, shows the draw that Ghetts has in UK music. After paying respect to the old school leaders, Ghetts honours the new, by bringing out Pa Salieu and BackRoad Gee on “No Mercy”, two long-time mutual collaborators. Honouring the new doesn’t last for long, however, as no one other than Giggs is brought out for “Crud”. Big Mike drew a massive reaction for coming out on “Skengman”, completing the feature list for the evening.

While the evening had enough features to justify a Conflict of Interest festival, the albums feature list is far more impressive, pulling Wretch 32, Dave, Stormzy, Skepta, and Ed Sheeran. With the unwieldy power Ghetts possessed in getting the biggest artists to hail from the UK to feature on the album, it is no surprise that he recruited an all-star cast for his final show on the album tour. This show will go down in legend, much like Drake and Skepta coming out for Section Boyz in 2016.

The album, Conflict of Interest, was released earlier in the year to critical acclaim. Listen below:

The shortlist has been shared on social media and includes five debuts: Arlo Parks, Celeste, Black Country, Nubya Garcia and Berwyn.

The 2021 Hyundai Mercury Prize Shortlist has been announced!

Congratulations to:@arloparks@berwynberwyn_@BCNRband@celeste@floatingpoints@THEREALGHETTS@Hanpeel@lauramvula@mogwaiband@nubya_garcia@SaultGlobal@wolfalicemusic #HyundaiMercuryPrize pic.twitter.com/Z728zcSuXR

— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) July 22, 2021

The list also includes Wolf Alice, who won the prestigious award back in 2018 for “Visions of A Life” and acknowledgement for their debut album “My Love Is Cool” in 2015. Mvula was nominated twice before, in 2013 for “Sing To The Moon” and in 2016 for “The Dreaming Room“.

Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey and Laura Marling are the only ones with three nods each, and Harvey is the only artist with two wins.

“The Mercury Prize is known for championing a wide range of musical genres, with Primal Scream winning the first award in 1992 and artists including Ms Dynamite, Pulp, Dave, Roni Size, Skepta, Elbow, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and The XX among the acts who went on to claim the prize“. 

The records will be judged by a panel of music critics and industry professionals. This year it will be three-time nominee Anna Calvi, Dj and radio presenter Annie Mac, Musician Jamie Cullum and last year winner Michael Kiwanuka.

The 2021 eligibility period for best album ran from 18th July 2020 to 16th July 2021. David Wilkinson, A mercury Price chairman said that even though last year has been challenging, “creatively, this is shaping up to be an exceptional year for British music – with so many outstanding albums“.

The gala will take place on 9th September at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. More info about it can be found on the official website.

See the shortlist for Hyundai Mercury Prize 2021:
Arlo Parks: “Collapsed in Sunbeams”
Berwyn: “Demotape/Vega”
Black Country, New Road: “For the First Time…”
Celeste: “Not Your Muse”
Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / The London Symphony Orchestra: “Promises”
Ghetts: “Conflict of Interest”
Hannah Peel: “Fir Wave”
Laura Mvula: “Pink Noise”
Mogwai: “As the Love Continues”
Nubya Garcia: “Source”
Sault: “Untitled (Rise)”
Wolf Alice: “Blue Weekend”

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Writing on Instagram about his latest video’s drop, Ghetts wrote: “Good Hearts video featuring @aida.lae… special thanks to all the skaters that came down it was such a vibe.”

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The video, directed by Nathan James Tettey, begins with Aida Lae at a roller rink as she starts to sing: “Good hearts don’t, good hearts don’t come around often //Always someone asking for something, yeah // Your heart won’t let me down, trust it // Good hearts know, good hearts show //That you can make believing in something, yeah.” Ghetts then joins the singer; he walks out into the centre of the rink as the skaters begin to dance; he raps: “When I say contacts full up of red Starburst, all I mean is sweet ones. I don’t understand why men buy sex.” The lighthearted, dance nature of the video matches the track’s upbeat vibe.”

The track ‘Good Hearts’ features as the seventh song on the tracklist of Ghett’s seventh studio album, ‘Conflict of Interest,’ which was released earlier this year.  The album reached number two in the UK album charts and received critical acclaim, including a 95 out of 100 score from Metacritic.

The director of the video for Ghetts and Aida Lae’s track, Nathan James Tettey, has been the creative influence behind several of the hottest rap videos on the scene. He has so far collaborated with Dave, Headie One, Stormzy, Burna Boy and Fredo.

Ghetts has been active on the music scene this week, also dropping the track ‘Running’ with Manchurian singer Pip Millett. Pip said on the collaboration: “Running” is about the tiresome reality of being black/a POC in an unequal white western world.”

Last month the rapper live-streamed his performance at Magazine, London. Drawing on his latest album ‘Conflict of Interest’ the live stream served as a teaser for his upcoming in-person tour, due to commence this November, with some strong features from veteran MC Dizzee Rascal and rising star Pa Salieu.

You can watch the music video for ‘Good Hearts’ now on YouTube.

Teasing ‘Skengman’ on his Instagram, the MC first posted a video of Stormzy accompanied by a short clip of the song with the caption “CONFLICT OF INTEREST : STORMZY. STAY TUNED.” He has been hinting at the album title since 10th January, and confirmed just yesterday, 14th January, as the new single was released.

Although pairing up to rap the chorus of ‘Skengman’, each artist puts their own spin on the verses. Verse two, performed by Stormzy, contains the title lyric multiple times, such as here: “If—if snitches then man’s cold / Them mans start hittin’ up, skengman mode.” According to Genius Lyrics, “‘Skeng’ is a British slang term for a weapon, most specifically a knife or a gun. Therefore, a ‘skengman’ is a person who owns such a weapon.”

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Other songs included on the album are ‘IC3′, a collaboration with Skepta, as well as ‘Proud Family’ and ‘Mozambique’ featuring Jaykae and Moonchild Sanelly. In the music video for ‘Proud Family’, released last month, Ghetts revealed the album track-list to have 16 songs total. Despite the titles being crossed out, fans were able to uncover the names of most, if not all of the tracks. Although no date has been announced for the album’s release, Ghetts did say while promoting the single that ‘Conflict Of Interest’ is “coming soon”, so fans should be ready for more information.

The track is impactful from the start, with Ghetts rapping about his family, past mistakes, and positive change, over a lulling, mellow beat. Across the track, a theme of benevolence runs throughout, as the artists raps lyrics such as “Unconditional love, that get through anything miracle love, that nothing can’t top this pinnacle love, that spiritual love, that’s that original love.”

PROUD FAMILY OUT NOW #GIIGhttps://t.co/UaQsNVznal pic.twitter.com/DJxKZg8WZq

— GHETTS (@THEREALGHETTS) December 16, 2020

The music video that accompanied the track is equally moving, with the artist and director utilising a split-screen effect in order to show Ghetts progression. While one side depicts the artist young and getting arrested, the other shows him matured, surrounded by family, and creating music with artists such as J Hus, Dave, and Stormzy, who make cameo appearances within the video.

It’s been a few years since the artist dropped a full-length release, with his most recent album ‘Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament’ coming out in 2018. However, this single, as well as his other 2020 releases ‘IC3′ featuring Skepta and ‘Mozambique’ featuring Jaykae and Moonchild Sanelly, have left fans and critics alike eager for the artists next album. With ‘Proud Family’ being such a powerful, inspiring track, the artist has proved that whatever he releases next, will be worth the wait.

Both artists posted to their social media platforms to announce the release, with Ghetts asking his followers, “What lines did you pick up on?” It’s clear that the lyrics are the foundation of the track, not only because of the simple drum-based instrumental, but because of the pivotal sections which were posted prior to the release. For example, the verse four line about British history – “Don’t tell me to go back where I came from while the Queen sits there in stolen jewels” – and the title itself, which is the UK police code used to identify Black males.

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Still historical when October’s over.

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Ghetts, who co-wrote the single, spoke to Annie Mac on her radio show, explaining that “It’s a collaboration that the people that are familiar with myself and Skepta, and familiar with grime culture have been waiting on for absolute years.” He continued, “It’s a great time because we’ve done it in a time where we’ve made a record that has substance to it.”

The rapper expressed that he and his collaborator had previously been competitive and egotistical, which caused them to see each other as professional rivals, but he is grateful that they have matured now and were able to work together. He also spoke out about his experience, which many Black people also experience, and is the song’s main theme; he eloquently said that, “If you’re constantly stopping people and radioing through and saying a letter and a number, that’s what it becomes.”

‘IC3′ is a follow up to previous single ‘Mozambique‘, shared in April 2020, which features Moonchild Sanelly and Jaykae, as well as being produced by Rude Kid. The lead singlet to Ghetts’ upcoming album was also released this year, another collaborative track called ‘Like What’ featuring Joe Grind and LD.