{"id":230092,"date":"2025-10-16T22:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230092\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:56:07","slug":"sam-fender-wins-2025-mercury-prize-for-his-album-people-watching-mercury-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230092\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Fender wins 2025 Mercury prize for his album People Watching | Mercury prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury prize<\/a>, for his chart-topping album People Watching.<\/p>\n

Announcing the award, Sian Eleri, BBC radio DJ and one of the judges on the judging panel, said the album was characterised by \u201ccohesion, character and ambition. It felt like a classic album, one that will take pride of place in record collections for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fender, 31, grew up in North Shields, close to where the award ceremony was held this year, in Newcastle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He broke through quickly with his debut album Hypersonic Missiles in 2019, which topped the UK album chart, then consolidated its epic yet poignant sound on second album Seventeen Going Under (2021), and again with People Watching, released in February.<\/p>\n

It has taken him to even greater commercial heights, producing two Top 10 singles and prompting a series of stadium concerts.<\/p>\n

Accepting the award to the sound of Newcastle United chants in the crowd, Fender said: \u201cWe did not expect this at all \u2026 I want to say thank you, because I never did, to the person the song People Watching is about: Annie Orwin, who\u2019s up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fender has previously described Orwin, an actor, as \u201clike a surrogate mother\u201d to him, and the lyrics of the song People Watching reflect on his visits to see her in the care home where she eventually died in 2023. He performed the song at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Mercury prize shortlist featured a number of commercially successful albums alongside somewhat lesser-known names.<\/p>\n

People Watching, Wolf Alice\u2019s The Clearing and Pulp\u2019s comeback album More all topped the UK album chart, while CMAT\u2019s Euro-Country, FKA twigs\u2019 Eusexua, Fontaines DC\u2019s Romance and PinkPantheress\u2019s Fancy That all reached the Top 3. Bookmakers had CMAT as the favourite, followed by Fontaines DC<\/a> and Pulp.<\/p>\n

Also nominated were Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon, rapper Pa Salieu, jazz-funk artist Emma-Jean Thackray, and Welsh jazz pianist Joe Webb.<\/p>\n

Martin Carthy on the Mercury prize\u2019s red carpet. Photograph: JMEnternational\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The prize also had its oldest ever nominee: English folk singer Martin Carthy<\/a>, 84, recognised for his album Transform Me Then Into a Fish.<\/p>\n

Carthy\u2019s career stretches back to the early 1960s London, where he influenced Bob Dylan, teaching him the standard Scarborough Fair. He later made recordings with his wife, Norma Waterson, and their daughter Eliza Carthy followed them into folk music, earning two Mercury prize nominations of her own in 1998 and 2003.<\/p>\n

Martin and Eliza performed a version of Scarborough Fair together, with sitar player Sheema Mukherjee, at the ceremony. Alon, Fender, FKA twigs<\/a>, Pulp, Salieu, Thackray, Webb and Wolf Alice each also performed a song live.<\/p>\n

CMAT was also in attendance, but did not perform due to recent treatment to two wisdom teeth. \u201cI was thinking about making jewellery from them,\u201d she told BBC 6 Music. \u201cI want to make the other nominees kiss my teeth for good luck, but not tell them it\u2019s my good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolf Alice became the first act to be nominated for each of their first four albums. Both they and Pulp<\/a> have one win from four nominations.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Mercury prize seemed to be in a somewhat parlous state, after it failed to secure an event sponsor and had to make do with a scaled-back awards show without live performances.<\/p>\n

But it has returned strongly in 2025, relocating to Newcastle and using the city\u2019s Utilita Arena as a venue. It also hosted an array of \u201cMercury fringe\u201d events in the days prior to the award ceremony, with artist showcases, workshops and panel discussions.<\/p>\n

Guardian analysis<\/a> of recent winners found that between 2014 and 2023, every winner hailed from London, with Leeds band English Teacher finally bringing a win from outside the capital in 2024.<\/p>\n

The move to Newcastle, which helps to counter a generally London-centric music industry, has therefore been praised. Ian Murray, minister for creative industries, media and arts, said the \u201csymbolic step\u201d was \u201chugely welcome \u2026 for too long other regions have had to play second fiddle to London, despite having world-class creative output in their own right\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sam Fender and band celebrate their win. Photograph: Danny Lawson\/PA<\/p>\n

The Mercury prize is voted for by a team of music industry figures: jazz musician and broadcaster Jamie Cullum; radio DJs Sian Eleri, Jamz Supernova, Mistajam, and Danielle Perry; journalists Phil Alexander, Will Hodgkinson and Sophie Williams; music consultant Lea Stonhill; and the chair of the judges, Jeff Smith, head of music at BBC Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music.<\/p>\n

The prize, founded in 1992, is described as a \u201ccelebration of the 12 albums of the year, recognising artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres\u201d. The most nominated artists are Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys, each with five, while PJ Harvey is the only artist to have won it twice.<\/p>\n

Fender wins \u00a325,000 prize money. The judges\u2019 statement added that People Watching is \u201cmelody-rich and expansive, marrying heartland rock with the realities of everyday life and the importance of community. These are thoughtful songs with broad appeal, as cinematic as they are intimate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury prize, for his chart-topping album People Watching. Announcing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-230092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}