Two Irish acts nominated for prestigious Mercury Prize in UK

The 12 nominees for the Mercury Prize were announced on Wednesday morning

Wed, 10 Sep, 2025 - 11:50

Casey Cooper-Fiske

Two Irish acts have been nominated for the 2025 Mercury Prize, the prestigious album of the year competition in the UK.

CMAT made the list with her recently-released Euro-Country record, while Fontaines DC were nominated for Romance, available since August 2024.

The 12-artist shortlist also features Pulp, Sam Fender, Wolf Alice, FKA Twigs, PinkPantheress, Pa Salieu, Emma-Jean Thackray, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, and Martin Carthy. The winner to be announced at the awards ceremony in Newcastle on October 16.

The prize, which has been running since 1992, when it was won by Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, aims to champion the album format as well as new music in the UK and Ireland across an eclectic range of genres.

Pulp, who won the prize in 1996 for their album Different Class, have been nominated for More, their first album in more than 20 years. The Sheffield band were also nominated in 1994 for His ‘N’ Hers, and in 1998 for This Is Hardcore.

CMAT was previously nominated in 2024 for her album Crazymad, For Me, while Fender, who is nominated for his third album People Watching, was previously nominated for Seventeen Going Under in 2022.

Post-punks Fontaines DC have been nominated for 2024 album Romance, having previously been nominated in 2019 for their debut album Dogrel, while indie rockers Wolf Alice are nominated for fourth album The Clearing, released in August, having previously won with 2017’s Visions Of A Life in 2018.

Wolf Alice have been nominated for all of their studio albums, with debut My Love Is Cool missing out on the prize in 2015, and third LP Blue Weekend missing out in 2021.

Singer FKA Twigs, who was previously nominated for debut studio album LP1, has received a nod for third album Eusexua, while producer and singer PinkPantheress has received her first appearance on the shortlist for second mixtape Fancy That.

Rapper Salieu, DJ Thackray, singer Alon, pianist Webb, and folk singer Carthy, who was a member of Steeleye Span in the 1970s, are also all receiving their first shortlist nomination for the prize.

Carthy has been nominated for his latest album Transform Me Then Into A Fish, Webb has been nominated for Hamstrings And Hurricanes, Alon has been nominated for In Limerence, and Thackray has been nominated for Weirdo.

The awards are this year judged by a panel that includes jazz star Jamie Cullum, DJ Jamz Supernova, and The Times pop and rock critic Will Hodgkinson, and is chaired by Radio 2 head of music Jeff Smith.

The 2025 ceremony will see the first time the awards have been held outside of London at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena, where it will feature live performances for a number of the nominees.

Mercury Prize nominees