The Mercury Prize 2025 are – or so it would have us believe – awarded for artistic merit rather than sales, and the winners are therefore traditionally celebrated and condemned in equal measure. But that’s all part of the fun.
The award is for the best British or Irish album of the year across all genres – pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, jazz, folk, classical etc – and even those that defy genre. Perhaps even especially those who defy the genre.
The other thing that makes the award unique and coveted (despite what the non-nominees might say) is that it’s only one award. There is nothing for singles, art, producers or videos. Just “Album of the Year”. Plain and simple.
This year the awards will be held outside of London for the first time because the music industry has just realized that there is a world outside the capital – a fact they could have confirmed by checking where most of their acts actually come from.
Trains have been set up to transport the “VIPs” up to the Utilita Arena in Newcastle in the North East of England and the city has fallen over itself to welcome them. Expect other cities outside of London to be similarly patronized in the future.
Read on for this year’s nominees and to find out how you can watch Mercury Prize 2025 online, on TV and anywhere.
How to watch the 2025 Mercury Music Prize for free in the UK
The Mercury Prize 2025 award ceremony will be broadcast simultaneously by BBC Four and BBC iPlayer from 9.30pm BST on Thursday 16 October.
You don’t have to miss it if you’re a Brit in exile abroad, because you can unblock BBC iPlayer with a VPN. We show you how to do it below…
How to watch the 2025 Mercury Prize from abroad
For those away from home who want to see Mercury Prize 2025you won’t be able to watch the show like you normally would due to annoying regional restrictions. Fortunately, there is an easy solution.
Downloading a VPN allows you to stream online no matter where you are. It’s a simple piece of software that changes your IP address, meaning you can access on-demand content or live TV just as if you were at home.
Can I watch Mercury Music Prize 2025 anywhere else in the world?
Unfortunately 2025 Mercury Music Prize is not available to view outside the UK. This includes the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
So for UK residents abroad who want to watch the ceremony, they will need to use NordVPN to access their free stream.
‘The 2025 Mercury Music Prize’ – Frequently Asked Questions
‘The 2025 Mercury Music Prize’ – Shortlisted artists and albums
- CMAT — Euro country Sky
- Emma-Jean Thackray — Strange
- FKA twigs — Eusexua
- Fontaine’s DC — Romance
- Jacob Alon — In Limerence
- Joe Webb — Hamstrings and hurricanes
- Martin Carthy — Then turn me into a fish
- Pa Salieu — African foreigner
- PinkPantheress — Fancy That
- Pulp – More
- Sam Fender — People are watching
- Wolf Alice — The clearing
Who are the previous winners of the “Mercury Music Prize”/”Mercury Prize”?
1992 Primal Scream Screamadelica
1993 suede Suede
1994 M People Elegant Slumming
1995 Portishead Dummy
1996 Pulp Different Class
1997 Roni Size & Representative New forms
1998 Gómez Bring it on
1999 Talvin Singh Okay
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’m a bird now
2006 Arctic Monkeys Whatever people say I am, I am not
2007 Klaxons Myths about the near
2008 Elbow The rarely seen child
2009 Tale Debelle Speech therapy
2010 The xx xx
2011 PJ Harvey Let England Shake
2012 all-J A fantastic wave
2013 James Blake Overgrown
2014 Young fathers Death
2015 Benjamin Clementine At least for now
2016 Skepta Konnichiwa
2017 Sampha Treat
2018 Wolf Alice Visions of a life
2019 Dave Psychodrama
2020 Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka
2021 Arlo Parks Collapsed in sun rays
2022 Little Simz Sometimes I might be an introvert
2023 Ezra Collective Where I should be
2024 English teacher This could be Texas
Who are the “2025 Mercury Music Prize” judges?
The 2025 Mercury Prize judges are: Danielle Perry (Broadcaster & Writer); Jamie Cullum (Musician & Radio 2 Broadcaster); Jamz Supernova (6 Music Broadcaster and DJ); Jeff Smith (Head of Music, Radio 2 & Radio 6 Music); Lea Stonhill (Consultant for Music Programming); Mistajam (Songwriter, DJ & Broadcaster); Phil Alexander (creative director, Kerrang!/contributing editor, Mojo); Sian Eleri (Radio 1 Broadcaster & DJ); Will Hodgkinson (Chief Rock & Pop Critic, The Times); Sophie Williams (music writer and broadcaster).
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