Sam Fender has been named the winner of the 2025 Mercury Prize for his album, People Watching.
Other nominees for the album of the year award indie rock band Wolf Alice, with their latest album The Clearing, the band have been shortlisted for all four of their studio albumns, after picking up the prize in 2018 for their second record, Visions of a Lide.
Pop artist PinkPantheress, who just released a remix album of her latest record Fancy That, singer-songwriter Jacob Alon and folk musician Martin Carthy, who, at 84, was the prize’s oldest ever nominee.
The event took place in the hometown of Sam Fender, Newcastle, of course, who has scooped the win with his third album, People Watching, a steely-eyed dissection of working-class life in the north.
This year, the ceremony relocated from London to Newcastle, following in the footsteps of the MOBO Awards, as part of a new partnership between Newcastle City Council and the North East Combined Authority.
It was the first time the ceremony had taken place outside the capital since it all started in 1992. Next year, the Brit Awards will also leave London, headed to Manchester for a change of scene.
Speaking to the BBC, Jo Twist, chief executive of the BPI, which organises the Mercury and the Brits, said: “We’ve always had the aspiration to move the Mercury Prize, in particular, outside of London because it’s a representation of the best music of the year from across Britain and Ireland.”
“Celebrating that talent from all over the country was part of the thinking.”
The band English Teacher won the 2024 Mercury Prize for their debut album, This Could Be Texas, but this year it was Fender’s turn.
The full list of nominated albums included:
The 12 nominated albums are:
CMAT – Euro-Country
Emma-Jean Thackray – Weirdo
FKA Twigs – Eusexua
Fontaines DC – Romance
Jacob Alon – In Limerence
Joe Webb – Hamstrings and Hurricanes
Martin Carthy – Transform Me Then Into a Fish
Pa Salieu – Afrikan Alien
PinkPantheress – Fancy That
Pulp – More
Sam Fender – People Watching
Wolf Alice – The Clearing