Pulp, CMAT and Sam Fender among artists nominated for 2025 Mercury Prize

Britpop band Pulp, Irish singer CMAT and singer-songwriter Sam Fender are among the artists whose albums have been nominated for the 2025 Mercury Prize.

Fontaines DC, Wolf Alice, FKA Twigs, PinkPantheress, Pa Salieu, Emma-Jean Thackray, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, and Martin Carthy complete the 12 artist shortlist, with 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, while CMAT, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, has been nominated for her third LP Euro-Country.

Pulp were also nominated in 1994 for His ‘N’ Hers, and in 1998 for This Is Hardcore.

The band’s lead singer Jarvis Cocker told BBC Radio 6 Music: “The fact that we’ve been shortlisted as one of the 12 albums of the year, with an album that is the first album we’ve recorded in 24 years… we could have just released it, and nobody would have noticed at all.

“So it’s great that we’ve got this, and we’re very much looking forward to coming to Newcastle and being part of the ceremony, and just want to say thank you.

“So we’ll come back from America (where they are currently touring), hopefully, and we’ll see you at the thing. Thank you very much.”

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.

The Dublin-born star told 6 Music: “It’s the highest honour, it’s the absolute highest honour that you can receive as someone who makes albums as your medium to express yourself, which is what I do, and I’m particularly proud of Euro-Country, so it really does mean the world to be nominated.

“Can’t wait to see you all at the Mercury Prize. I hope I win, but also if I don’t, no worries if not.”

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.

If either Wolf Alice or Pulp win the prize, they will become only the second artist to have won it twice after PJ Harvey, who won it with Stories From The City in 2001 and Let England Shake in 2011.

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.

Further details are to be announced in due course.