Who has won the Mercury Prize in previous years?

8 September 2022, 10:00 | Updated: 25 July 2024, 11:52

By Radio X

@RadioX

Is winning the Mercury the all-important boost to an artist's career, or a one-way ticket to obscurity? Here's how the previous winners have fared...

Some believe it's cursed, some consider it one of music's most important awards in the business.

The Mercury Music Prize usually gives the winner a career boost that sets them on the path to a long and prosperous career. But for a select few, that one night of triumph doesn't always translate into sales.

We take a look at the artists who have won the prize for Album Of The Year since the award's inception in 1992... and how they've got on since then.

1. 1992: Primal Scream - Screamadelica

   

   Screamadelica broke the band into the mainstream and they have achieved considerable commercial success since. They released their eleventh album, Chaosmosis in 2016 and issued a compilation in 2019 called Maximum Rock'n'Roll : The Singles. Frontman Bobby Gillespie collaborated with Jehnny Beth from Savages on the album Utopian Ashes in 2021. Summer 2022 saw the band perform high profile sets at festivals like Glastonbury, Victorious and Isle Of Wight.

2. 1993: Suede - Suede

   

   Following the success of their debut, Brett Anderson's glam revivalists achieved more critical acclaim with follow-up Dog Man Star in 1994 but the departure of guitarist Bernard Butler grabbed more attention. Follow-ups Coming Up and Head Music both went to number one but 2002's A New Morning didn’t do as well and the band broke up. They reformed in 2010 and their ninths studio album is released in September 2022.

3. 1994: M-People - Elegant Slumming

   

   The band's two singles after the Prize both got into the top ten. In 1994 and '95 the band won the BRIT Award for Best British Dance Act. The band’s next three albums reached the top ten, but their last album was in 1997 and singer Heather Small issued a solo LP in 2000. Despite the lack of new material, M People continue to tour and main man Mike Pickering has pursued a successful A&R career, working with the likes of Calvin Harris. A retrospective box set, Renaissance, was released in 2020.

4. 1995: Portishead - Dummy

   

   Their self-titled follow-up made number two in the chart but 1998’s Roseland NYC live album was not as successful. The band then went on hiatus between 1999 and 2005 before releasing Third in 2008. They have continued to tour and headlined the Other Stage at Glastonbury in 2013, while also contributing to soundtrack to the film High Rise. In 2016, Portishead were given an Ivor Novello Award for the Outstanding Contribution To British Music and in May 2022 played their first live in seven years for War Child.

5. 1996: Pulp - Different Class

   

   Different Class came at the height of Pulp’s success. Lead singer Jarvis Cocker got a lot of attention in 1996 after he infamously invaded the stage during Michael Jackson’s performance. Follow-up albums got into the top ten – except a greatest hits released in 2002 which only got to #71. The band briefly reformed in 2011 for a hugely popular series of shows and released their first single in over a decade in January 2013, titled After You. They're set to reunite in 2023 for more live dates.

6. 1997: Roni Size/Reprazent - New Forms

   

   Roni Size continued to release albums after New Forms, including 2000’s In The Mode. In July 2021, he performed at the 20th anniversary edition of Exit festival in Serbia.

7. 1998: Gomez - Bring It On

   

   After winning a Mercury Prize the band went on to win both NME and Q Awards and were nominated for a BRIT. Follow up Liquid Skin is the band’s most successful so far – reaching number two in the charts but their last two offerings have failed to get into the Top 40. Most of the band have released solo albums, with singer Ben Ottewell issuing A Man Apart in 2017.

8. 1999: Talvin Singh - OK

   

   2001’s follow up Ha only reached number 57 in the UK album charts, but in 2010, Singh won a UK Asian Music Award for Commitment To Scene. He worked with Madonna on her album Music in 2000 and was awarded an OBE in 2014.

9. 2001: PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

   

   PJ was nominated twice before winning in 2001 and has released four studio albums since then, with 2016’s The Hope Six Demolition Project topping the UK album charts. She’ll be back in 2011 (see below).

10. 2000: Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast

    

    The Hour Of Bewilderbeast is considered Damon Gough’s best work, selling around 300,000 copies. Since then he recorded the soundtrack to film About A Boy and his third album Have You Fed the Fish? got mixed reactions. Gough appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in 2015, answering questions on Bruce Springsteen. His latest album is Banana Skin Shoes, released in May 2020.

11. 2002: Ms. Dynamite - A Little Deeper

    

    Judgement Days, the follow up to her Mercury-winning debut only reached number 43 in the charts. After taking a break from music in 2006, she returned in 2011 with a new single, Neva Soft. 2018 saw Ms. Dynamite - whose real name is Niomi McLean-Daley - awarded with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

12. 2003: Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner

    

    Dizzee’s follow-up albums Showtime, Maths + English and Tongue 'n Cheek have all been critically acclaimed. His latest album has now gone platinum – selling more than 300,000 copies. He was nominated again for 2011's Prize, but lost out to The xx. On 7th March 2022, Dizzee Rascal was convicted of assaulting his former partner Cassandra Jones.

13. 2004: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

    

    The album got to number 3 when first released. Follow up You Could Have it So Much Better came out in October 2005 and was the band’s first number 1 album. Their album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand although getting a good response did not get the critical acclaim of their debut and only reached number 2 in the UK. A greatest hits album, Hits To The Head, was released in March 2022.

14. 2005: Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

    

    After winning in 2005 I Am A Bird Now went from number 135 to 16 in a week – the biggest jump in the history of the Prize. Follow up album The Crying Light – released in 2009 – only reached number 18 in the UK. The band went on hiatus in 2015 and Antony, now known as Anohni, released an album called HOPELESSNESS in 2016, which was nominated for that year's Mercury. She became the second openly transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award - the track Manta Ray was given a nod for Best Original Song, which appeared in the film Racing Extinction.

15. 2006: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

    

    The album was already the fastest selling debut album in chart history by the time of the Mercury win. The band’s follow up Favourite Worst Nightmare also charted at number 1. Their latest epic, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, was nominated for the 2018 prize and the band are back in 2022 with a new LP, The Car.

16. 2007: Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future

    

    Myths Of The Near Future charted at number 2 in the charts and in 2007 sold 274,000 copies. The trio released follow up Surfing the Void in August 2010. It’s reported parts of it had to be re-recorded after the band’s label said it was too experimental. It got generally positive reviews but peaked at number 10 in the charts. 2014's Love Frequency barely scraped into the Top 40 and has been their final release to date. In 2022, keyboard player James Righton put together the live band that appeared at ABBA's Voyager concerts in London!

17. 2008: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

    

    The Bury band sold 300,000 albums in the two months after their win. The Seldom Seen Kid was the band’s highest charting album to date – getting to number 5 in the UK. Guy Garvey and co covered The Beatles for the 2017 John Lewis TV ad and released their ninth studio album Flying Dream 1 in 2021.

18. 2009: Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy

    

    Speech Therapy had the worst ever chart showing by a Mercury winner. She left her label Big Dada two months later – blaming them for the poor sales, but returned for her 2011 album Freedom Of Speech. Her long-awaited third album, Tantil Before I Breathe, was released in March 2017.

19. 2010: The xx - XX

    

    After their triumph at the Mercurys, the South London trio went on to be nominated for Best British Album, Best British Breakthrough and Best British Band at the BRIT Awards in 2011... but didn't win a thing. They returned in 2012 with the follow-up, Coexist and their third album, I See You, was nominated for the 2017 Mercury. In 2020, Romy Madley Croft appeared on Jehnny Beth's debut solo album To Love Is To Live and announced she was working on a solo album, while Oliver Sim's debut solo effort, Hideous Bastard, arrived in September 2022.

20. 2011: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

    

    Polly Jean made history as the first person to win the Mercury TWICE. Unlike 2001, when she was grounded by the events of 9/11, Peej got to go to the ceremony this time around. She was awarded an MBE in 2013 and in August 2022, Harvey's cover of Leonard Cohen's Who By Fire appeared on the soundtrack of the Apple TV series Bad Sisters.

21. 2012: Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

    

    The quirky, experimental quartet from Leeds released their second album This Is All Yours in 2014 and their third, Relaxer, was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Prize. The band issued their fourth album, The Dream, in February 2022.

22. 2013: James Blake - Overgrown

    

    After being nominated in 2011 for his debut album, Blake bagged the prize with his second outing, despite incredible competition from such heavyweights as David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg and Foals. His latest album is an ambient release, Wind Down, released in March 2022.

23. 2014: Young Fathers - Dead

    

    The Edinburgh electronica trio took the prize home in 2014 with their debut album. Since then, they've issued two more albums: White Men Are Black Men Too (2015) and Cocoa Sugar (2018).

24. 2015: Benjamin Clementine - At Least For Now

    

    The English poet and composer went on to release I Tell A Fly in 2017, and collaborated with the Gorillaz on their Humanz album, appearing on anti-Trump track, Hallelujah Money. His third album, And I Have Been, is released in October 2022.

25. 2016: Skepta - Konnichiwa

    

    The Shut Down star has gone from strength to strength, winning Best British Male at the NME Awards and an Ivor Novello for Songwriter of the Year in 2017. Other than becoming a bit of a fashion icon, the That's Not Me rapper has also got been given the seal of approval by Liam Gallagher himself. And he's a tough man to please.... The follow-up to Konnichiwa was Ignorance Is Bliss, released in May 2019, while Skepta collaborated with Gorillaz and Tony Allen on the song How Far? in May 2020.

26. 2017: Sampha - Process

    

    Since winning the Mercury, Sampha Sisay has bagged a co-writing credit on the new Florence + The Machine album, High As Hope. A fellow South Londoner, Sampha collaborated with Flo on the track Grace, and he’s also appeared on the latest album by former Talking Head David Byrne. He’s also present on Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded, which was given a nod in the 2018 Mercurys. He’s yet to release a follow-up to Process, but his latest collaboration has been the song Walking Flames with electronica musician Actress.

27. 2018: Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life

    

    The second album by the London band beat off competition from Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, while the band have supported Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age over the past couple of years. They were nominated for their debut My Love Is Cool in 2015 and had another nomination in 2021 for Blue Weekend. In February 2022, Wolf Alice were named Best British Group at the BRIT Awards.

28. 2019: Dave - Psychodrama

    

    The London rapper - full name David Orobosa Omoregie - won the 2019 with this deeply personal album about life as a black youth in Britain, including how his elder brother's sentence of life imprisonment has affected him. The judges called it "the musical equivalent of a literary masterpiece". A follow-up, We're All Alone In This Together, was released in July 2021 and in March 2022, his single Starlight became the first UK number one of the 2020s to be written and performed by just one person.

29. 2020: Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA

    

    The Muswell Hill-born singer-songwriter was named the BRITs Critics Choice in 2012 and his first two albums - Home Again (2012) and Love & Hate (2016) - were both nominated for the Mercury. He took home the prize in 2020 with his third album KIWANUKA, and in 2021 he sat on the judging panel!

30. 2021: Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

    

    Already a BRIT Awards winner, the debut album from the West London singer-songwriter beat the likes of Wolf Alice, Mogwai and Ghetts to win the 2021 prize. The judging panel said the album addressed "complex issues such as mental health and sexuality with real empathy, displaying a lyrical wisdom that belied her 21 years. Arlo is an artist who connects deeply with her generation and reflects the plurality of contemporary British life."

    Since the win, Parks has supported Harry Styles and Billie Eilish, appeared on the Park Stage at Glastonbury and has even read the CBeebies bedtime story. Not bad!

31. 2022 - Little Simz

    

    Little Simz - whose real name is Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo - took home the prestigious award in 2022 for her fourth studio album Sometimes I Might be Introvert.

    The Islington-born rapper beat out stiff competition from the likes of Wet Leg, for their self-titled debut album, Sam Fender's chart-topping second outing, Seventeen Going Under and LPs from Self Esteem, Yard Act, Harry Styles and funk-metal duo Nova Twins.

    Little Simz is still considered one of the most important rap artists in the UK and is undoubtedly well on her way to headlining Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage.

32. 2023 - Ezra Collective

    

    Ezra Collective won the honour - and the £25,000 - last year, with their sophomore album Where I'm Meant To Be.

    The band - comprised of Femi Koleoso on drums, TJ Koleoso on bass, Joe-Armon Jones on keys, James Mollison on saxophone and Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet - came out on top out of a shortlist, which included the likes of the likes of Arctic Monkeys with The Car, Young Fathers with Heavy Heavy and Raye's My 21st Century Blues.

    The outfit have gone on to appear on many festival line-ups and released their Dance, No One's Watching, album in 2024.