"but the use of the word usual suggested she was diplomatically overlooking last year's event, which through no fault of the album that won, English Teacher's This Could Be Texas had all the excitement of a wake. The Mercury had lost its corporate sponsorship, necessitating what host Annie Mac called an intimate celebration of this year's shortlist, in the same way that an estate agent might call a flat with the shower next to the cooker cosy."
"Visibly scaled-down and stripped of its live performances, it was oddly depressing to watch, but there was always the famous post-Mercury boost to the winning album's sales to look forward to. Having dropped out of the Top 40 months before, This Could Be Texas duly rocketed back up to Number 40, comfortably outsold by a reissue of an old album by Ultravox. It wasn't even the one with Vienna on it."
The Mercury Prize returned in 2025 after a diminished, sponsorship-lost ceremony the previous year. Local government in Newcastle and the music development agency Generator backed the event and relocated it to the Utilita Arena. The programme included many fringe events, from gigs and songwriting workshops to a Mercury Prize fanzone created with Greggs. Making the ceremony ticketed and open to the public increased energy and audience sparkle. The prior loss of corporate sponsorship had forced a scaled-down, performance-free celebration that nevertheless produced a post‑win sales bump for the previous winner. Sam Fender won the 2025 prize for People Watching.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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