{"id":654277,"date":"2026-10-22T23:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654277\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:24:12","slug":"raye-wins-2026-mercury-prize-for-this-music-may-contain-hope-mercury-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654277\/","title":{"rendered":"Raye wins 2026 Mercury prize for This Music May Contain Hope | Mercury prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raye is the winner of the 2026 Mercury prize<\/a>, for her second studio album, This Music May Contain Hope.<\/p>\n

Her win \u2013 for a hugely ambitious 73-minute record that spanned big band jazz, power balladry, funk and more \u2013 caps an ongoing renaissance for a British singer who at one point was in the doldrums, lashing out publicly at her record label for not letting her release a studio album.<\/p>\n

Since that low in 2021, she split from that former label and found huge success with two albums: My 21st Century Blues, which won her six Brit awards \u2013 still the record for a single Brits ceremony \u2013 and This Music May Contain Hope, which topped the UK charts and contains the global hit Where Is My Husband!<\/p>\n

Raye and fellow Mercury competitor Olivia Dean, whose album The Art of Loving has spent 55 weeks in the UK Top 10 Photograph: JMEnternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The judging panel said: \u201cRaye displays real imagination and scope in showing what an album can be, going beyond any one style or genre to realise her vision. The judges agreed that Raye\u2019s superb album will serve as a huge inspiration for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award, handed out yearly to the best British or Irish album as voted for by a panel of music industry figures, comes with a \u00a325,000 prize.<\/p>\n

While This Music May Contain Hope didn\u2019t have universally positive reviews \u2013 \u201cthere are flaws, but in fairness it pays off more often than it fails\u201d, was the opinion of the Guardian\u2019s pop critic Alexis Petridis \u2013 the judges hailed its \u201cscale, structure, ambition and sheer charm\u201d.<\/p>\n

Where Is My Husband! proved to be a powerhouse lead single, reaching No 1 in the UK, No 6 in the US and delighting audiences globally with Raye\u2019s witty rat-a-tat-tat delivery as she expressed her frustration at her romantic failures including \u201clonely acrobatics, unzipping my dress at 2am\u201d.<\/p>\n

It adds to a strange and heartening career for the 28-year-old singer, born Rachel Keen in west London, who started out by shuttling between genres and netting hits as a guest vocalist on pop-dance singles before finally being able to let her stylistic diversity shine on her album projects.<\/p>\n

As lighthearted as songs like Where Is My Husband! are, she has also written about more serious subjects, such as a sexual assault she faced from a music producer.<\/p>\n

Raye with her award, and her live band at the Mercury prize ceremony. Photograph: JM Enternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Accepting the award at the ceremony in Newcastle, Raye said: \u201cI cannot tell you how grateful I am to be holding this. I\u2019m shaking, I\u2019m jet-lagged, I\u2019m tired, I\u2019m grateful!\u201d<\/p>\n

She alluded to her difficult years with her former label, saying: \u201cAlbums are so important, and not to be bitter \u2013 because I feel like I\u2019m mostly at peace with my past \u2013 but to come from a place where it\u2019s all about singles and chasing the next thing, I just feel so grateful to be recognised.\u201d<\/p>\n

King David-Ike Elechi and Stan Woodward of Knats onstage during the 2026 Mercury prize ceremony. Photograph: JM Enternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She also talked about the central topic on the album: \u201cHope is a very cheesy word, especially for us British people, we don\u2019t do that deep stuff like that, but hope is something we all need \u2026 so I hope that message comes across to anyone who needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the shortlist, Paul McCartney missed out in the first year he was nominated for the prize, for his reflective album The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/a>. In a video message, he said he was \u201cchuffed\u201d and \u201csurprised\u201d to be nominated on a shortlist alongside \u201csuch a group of really amazing artists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suede, who opened the ceremony by performing their stridently pro-European anthem Dancing With the Europeans, weren\u2019t able to add a second Mercury win to their trophy cabinet, after winning for their self-titled debut in 1993, the second year the award ran.<\/p>\n

Nor could Dave, who won for his own debut album, Psychodrama, in 2019; he and McCartney were the only artists not to perform at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Pulp \u2013 the winners in 1996 \u2013 performed for the second year in a row: last year for their nominated album More, and this year representing the all-star compilation album Help, created to raise funds for the charity War Child.<\/p>\n

Florence + the Machine now have the ignominious honour of being the Mercury\u2019s joint highest nominee without winning, tying with Radiohead on five unconverted nominations.<\/p>\n

Pulp, who won the award in 1996, performed at the ceremony as representatives of the all-star charity album Help Photograph: JMEnternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Raye also beat stiff competition from Olivia Dean, whose album The Art of Loving has been one of the most successful albums by anyone in the singer\u2019s generation, spending every one of its 55 weeks since release in the UK Top 10.<\/p>\n

After losing its sponsor in 2024 and taking place in a rather low-key ceremony, the Mercury prize has repositioned itself, moving away from London to Newcastle in 2025 and scaling up in size to the city\u2019s Utilita Arena.<\/p>\n

In its inaugural year in its new home, the Mercury was awarded to local boy Sam Fender \u2013 though Newcastle jazz band Knats, who wowed the arena crowd with virtuosic bass soloing and spoken word poetry, weren\u2019t able to secure back-to-back Tyneside wins this year.<\/p>\n

There has been some consternation, though, that its focus is becoming more commercial than in the past \u2013 and not distinct enough from the Brit awards.<\/p>\n

Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine, performing at the Mercury ceremony. This year marked the fifth time the group had been nominated for the award without having won it. Photograph: JMEnternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2025, seven of the 12 nominated albums reached the UK Top 3, while this year six of the nominations reached No 1, and another two were Top 3 hits. All but two of the albums (Suede\u2019s Antidepressants and the Help charity compilation) were released by or in partnership with the three major labels: Universal, Warner and Sony.<\/p>\n

Previously the UK\u2019s independent music scene has been better represented, including in winners such as Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, Sampha and Ezra Collective.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s judging panel featured musicians, broadcasters, journalists and consultants: Afrodeutsche, Danielle Perry, Jamie Cullum, Lea Stonhill, MistaJam, Phil Alexander, Sian Eleri, Sophie Williams and Will Hodgkinson, with Jeff Smith as chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raye is the winner of the 2026 Mercury prize, for her second studio album, This Music May Contain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-654277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}