Seriously would rather see the guy from Game of Thrones get it.
Has Lauren Laverne just ruled out Kate Tempest winning it? Hooray!
Sampha
Called it \o/
Knew I should ve had a bet
Peak Mercury that.
Thank god for that
Yeah, called it months ago. Sampha is Mercury porn.
They must have been a bit pissed Ed Sheeran dingyed them out of a live performance considering the publicity it would’ve gave them.
Probably got a heads-up he wasn’t winning it.
Glad Sampha won.
So the entire eventual short shortlist of five for the winner’s spot were from South London.
NICE ONE THE REST OF THE BRITISH ISLES, WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHER TURNING UP?!?
On a related note, someone should have told Idris Elba that the prize was for music from the UK and Ireland while he exclusively talked about ‘English music’ in his pre-prize giving speech…
By my reckoning there has been ONE nominee out of all the acts in 2016 and 2017 who was not English. That being Corrie Dick, the Scottish drummer of Dinosaur.
Idris Elba was actually quite right to talk about England, it’s just a shame he couldn’t have said it in a more judgemental and disappointed manner. The real problem here is that the people nominating don’t seem to have much musical geography. Or maybe they’re all London-based and just nominate their pals.
Its probably more subconscious but I think the nominating pals/previous judges thing does happen, I mean Jessie Ware worked on the Ed Sheeran album and previously worked with Sampha while Kate Tempest and Ellie Rowsell (sings on the Alt-J album) were both judges last year.
Yeah, it’s not so much unconscious nepotism I have a problem with but that I can’t really believe they didn’t feel anything by a Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish act was worth consideration for the second year in a row.
They seemed to be celebrating the fact nearly half the acts came from South London - I’d say that’s cause to review the panel’s geography
i can only watch the first 15 seconds, but what a 15 seconds
The whole “where are all the East London artists at, five of the nominees are from South London” thing was gross. Are they now replacing token world act with token northern act?
The whole of Ireland actually qualifies for the Mercury rather than just the north, but only gets one token nomination every 2 or 3 years
Did make me wonder if the Welsh Music Prize and Scottish Album of the Year awards becoming established has harmed the chances of artists coming from there getting recognition at the Mercury Prize.
