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| Photo by Li Zhang on Unsplash |
They range from Gwenno's Cornish language folk rock album Tresor to Wet Leg and Self Esteem to Harry Styles, via Little Simz and Kojey Radical. The inclusion of Nova Twins also makes me wonder if someone on the selection panel has been made aware of the work of the Hercury Prize in recent years.
Now that the list is out, speculation will inevitably start as to who the winner will be when the ceremony takes place in September, and the bookies will be drawing up their lists and odds. At this moment in time, my gut is saying Self Esteem might win, but in reality, the field is actually wide open.
Why? Because, with the exception of Little Simz (who was also shortlisted for her debut album), none of the shortlisted artists have ever been nominated before. And that's important because statistics show that artists nominated for the first time have a greater chance of winning than those who are being nominated for the first, second, third, fourth or fifth time.
Seriously: They do.
Since the first Mercury Prize in 1992, 30 prizes have been awarded. Of those 30 awards:
24 artists won the award on their first nomination
3 artists won on their second nomination
2 artists won on their third nomination
Only one artist has ever won more than once, and that is PJ Harvey. She was first shortlisted in 1992 for her second album, Rid Of Me, was shortlisted again in 1995 for To Bring You My Love, and won for the first time in 2001 for Stories from the city, stories from the sea which was her third nomination. Her fourth nomination came in 2011 when she won an unprecedented second time with Let England Shake.
With the exception of PJ Harvey (who is already an exception because she'd won before) nobody has ever been shortlisted for a fourth time and won.
Similarly, no one has ever been shortlisted for a fifth time and won.
And no one has ever been shortlisted more than five times.
In terms of whether it matters if you're being nominated for your first album, or a later one, this doesn't seem to have any bearing on winning. It's the status of first time shortlister that really counts.
Thinking about it, it does make sense: Completely new or fairly new artists are more likely to be first time shortlisters and that means that there's not only a buzz around them but that they sound new and fresh. Wet Leg, who are nominated for the first time this year, would very much fall into this category.
In past years, the Mercury Prize has been criticised for being too white and too male. When you break the stats down, the prize has been won by:
11 female artists or mixed gender acts
19 male acts
Similarly, of the 30 awards handed out so far:
11 BAME artists have won
19 white artists have won
As with all previous years, it will be interesting to observe how these debates play out this year. This years shortlist is still very white, but there are four BAME artists on it. There's also 7 female artists, if we count Jessie Buckley's collaboration with Bernard Butler.
Another criticism that has been made concerns the entrance fee, which is £175 plus VAT. Which, despite the boost in sales and publicity Mercury nominated albums and artists receive, is a lot of money for small labels to fork out and may well impact the musical variety and diversity of the albums being put forward at the pre-shortlist stage of the awards process. Personally, I would have loved to see Gazel's Gazel's Book Of Souls be put forward for the 2020 prize, but it wasn't, and I completely understand why. It's easy to assume that others have also been put off paying as well.
Just in case you're wondering about some of the stats I've quoted, I can confirm that I worked them out for myself using information on previous shortlists that is available on the Mercury Prize website. If you want to check my working, please do.
In terms of those who have been nominated the most without winning, Radiohead continue to hold the crown for this with 5 shortlisted albums and no wins. They are followed by Laura Marling who has 4 shortlisted albums and no wins. There's also 7 artists now who've been shortlisted 3 times without winning and, if record labels are playing the game, these stats are probably being taken into consideration when it comes to deciding whether to put an album forward for consideration or not.
If you are an artist being nominated for a fourth time, my advice would be to weigh up whether you want to attend the ceremony at all and, if you decide to do so, then go, do a good performance, have a good time... but don't bother to write an acceptance speech.
No one is being shortlisted for the fourth time this year, so this isn't going to be a dilemma anyone is going to have to face in 2022, but it may crop again in future years. Or not.
