Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

The Mercury Prize was originally created by the British Phonographic and the British Association of Record Dealers in 1992, and is an annual prize in the UK and Ireland for best album. Artists for this years nominees list have been released, and Radiohead, David Bowie, and The 1975 are among artists to be included. Noticeable artist left off the nominee list this year include, Adele and Coldplay’s albums. This years nominees include genres from Pop, to Grime and and Rock.  The Mercury Prize will reward the winning artist with £25,000 when they are chosen on September 15 via Spin.

The Mercury Prize takes all albums into consideration, and the Mercury Prize has made it a point to suggest that the album that wins annually is the “strongest” of any genre. The Mercury Prize is known for surprising fans with their choice for winners, and many times have chosen the artists with slim chances for winning. These “surprise” choices for the winners has taken criticism in the past, especially back in 1994 when M People’s album won against four other noticeable popular artists including, Blur, The Prodigy, Blur, and Paul Weller.

The Mercury Prize has had noticeable effects of the sales of artists who have won the prize in the past.  In the past, artist like James Blake, and The xx have gained an incredible boost in popularity for winning The Mercury Prize. James Blake’s album Overgrown gained an estimated “25000% sales increase” when it won back in 2013. Even though the prize has shown to generate high sales increases to its winner, it also is a so-called curse to an artists overall career. In fact the Gorillaz even asked to be taken off as a nominee for their debut album back in 2001 over the superstition.

Nominee List for 2016 Mercury Prize:
ANOHNI, Hopelessness
Bat For Lashes, The Bride
David Bowie, ★
Jamie Woon, Making Time
Kano, Made in the Manor
Laura Mvula, The Dreaming Room
Michael Kiwanuka, Love and Hate
Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool
Savages, Adore Life
Skepta, Konnichiwa
The 1975, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
The Comet Is Coming, Channel the Spirits