Mercury Prize: Date, history, previous winners & more

The Mercury Prize, awarded annually for the best album released by an artist from the United Kingdom or Ireland, is one of the most prestigious accolades in contemporary music.

Here is everything you need to know about the Mercury Prize.

What is the Mercury Prize

Any album released by an artist where at least 50% of members are British or Irish is eligible to be submitted by a label for consideration for the Mercury Prize.

From all submissions, an independent panel of music industry experts create a shortlist of 12 nominees.

The prize is open to all types of music, with albums judged on their musical merit as opposed to their cultural or commercial success.

Mercury Prize history

The Mercury Prize was established in 1992 by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers.

The idea behind the Mercury Prize was to create an alternative to the Brit Awards and recognise a broader range of music artists.

Mercury Prize 2024 date, how to watch and TV Channel

The Mercury Prize will be awarded on Thursday 5th September at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

The ceremony will be available to watch live on BBC Four from 20:00 BST.

Mercury Prize 2024 nominees

The 12 albums nominated for the 2024 Mercury Prize are as follows:

• 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'

Mercury Prize previous winners

Year	Artist	Album
1992	Primal Scream	Screamadelica
1993	Suede	Suede
1994	M People	Elegant Slumming
1995	Portishead	Dummy
1996	Pulp	Different Class
1997	Roni Size & Reprazent	New Forms
1998	Gomez	Bring It On
1999	Talvin Singh	OK
2000	Badly Drawn Boy	The Hour of Bewilderbeast
2001	PJ Harvey	Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2002	Ms. Dynamite	A Little Deeper
2003	Dizzee Rascal	Boy in da Corner
2004	Franz Ferdinand	Franz Ferdinand
2005	Antony and the Johnsons	I Am a Bird Now
2006	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
2007	Klaxons	Myths of the Near Future
2008	Elbow	The Seldom Seen Kid
2009	Speech Debelle	Speech Therapy
2010	The xx	xx
2011	PJ Harvey	Let England Shake
2012	alt-J	An Awesome Wave
2013	James Blake	Overgrown
2014	Young Fathers	Dead
2015	Benjamin Clementine	At Least for Now
2016	Skepta	Konnichiwa
2017	Sampha	Process
2018	Wolf Alice	Visions of a Life
2019	Dave	Psychodrama
2020	Michael Kiwanuka	Kiwanuka
2021	Arlo Parks	Collapsed in Sunbeams
2022	Little Simz	Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
2023	Ezra Collective	Where I'm Meant to Be