Mercury Prize Nominees Announced

The 2009 nominees for the annual Barclaycard Mercury Prize were recently announced. The awards, established in 1992 by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) seek to champion British music and identify the best album from the UK or Ireland each year. A selected independent panel of musicians, music executives, journalists and other prominent figures in the UK music industry choose the short listed nominations, with the emphasis on ‘Innovation and creativity’. Primal Scream’s ‘Screamadelica’ was the inaugural winner of the award in 1992, which in recent years has seen the likes of PJ Harvey (2001), Dizzee Rascal (2003), Arctic Monkeys (2006), Klaxons (2007) and Elbow (2008) walk away with the prestigious prize. The winner also receives a £20,000 cheque.

The nominees for this year are:

Florence & The Machine - Lungs

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

La Roux - La Roux

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

The Horrors - Primary Colours

Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Led Bib - Sensible Shoes

Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men

The Invisible - The Invisible

Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew

Florence & the Machine (pictured above) and Kasabian are currently the Bookie’s favourites to win, with William Hill giving them both odds of 5/1.

The winner will be announced live on BBC 2 on Tuesday 8th Sep.

Have Your Say! What are your thoughts on the Mercury Prize nominees this year? Are there many unpredictable names above? Who have they missed out? And who will walk away with the prize this year?