This year’s Mercury Prize is set to take place this week – and here are the bookies’ odds on the favourite to win the coveted trophy.
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The 12 ‘Albums Of The Year’ were announced by Lauren Laverne last month (Wednesday September 10) on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds.
Featured on this year’s list is CMAT‘s acclaimed third album ‘Euro-Country’, Fontaines D.C.‘s ‘Romance’ (the runner-up of NME‘s albums of the year 2024), Pulp‘s comeback record ‘More’, PinkPantheress‘ ‘Fancy That’, Wolf Alice‘s ‘The Clearing’ and Sam Fender‘s ‘People Watching’.
Other nominees include FKA Twigs (‘Eusexua’), Pa Salieu (‘Afrikan Alien’) and Emma-Jean Thackray (‘Weirdo’). You can see the full list below.
William Hill currently have CMAT odds on at 9/5 to win, closely followed by Pulp at 7/2. FKA Twigs and Fontaines DC are tied at 4/1 each, while Thackray is at 8/1.
Ladbrokes follow a similar path with CMAT again odds-on favourite here at 7/4. Fontaines DC fair better here being 3/1 odds on, followed by FKA Twigs at 6/1, Pulp at 7/1 and Thackray at 10/1.
Bet 365 also have CMAT as favourite at 15/8, followed by Fontaines DC at 11/4 and FKA Twigs at 5/1. Pulp follow closely at 6/1, with Wolf Alice at 8/1. You can see a roundup of all the odds here.
The shortlist for the Mercury Prize 2025 is:
CMAT – ‘Euro-Country’
Emma-Jean Thackray – ‘Weirdo’
FKA Twigs – ‘Eusexua’
Fontaines D.C. – ‘Romance’
Jacob Alon – ‘In Limerence’
Joe Webb – ‘Hamstrings & Hurricanes’
Martin Carthy – ‘Transform Me Then Into A Fish’
Pa Salieu – ‘Afrikan Alien’
PinkPantheress – ‘Fancy That’
Pulp – ‘More’
Sam Fender – ‘People Watching’
Wolf Alice – ‘The Clearing’
This year’s edition of the Mercury Prize awards show will take place at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Thursday October 16. It’ll feature live performances from many of the 12 shortlisted acts, culminating in the overall winner being revealed.
BBC Music, which is the Mercury Prize’s broadcast partner, will provide coverage of the event. You can find the last remaining tickets to attend here.
Earlier this month, it was confirmed that this year’s period of eligibility for albums is over a month longer. This means the records needed to have been released between Saturday July 13, 2024, and Friday August 29, 2025.
In turn, CMAT’s ‘Euro-Country’ only just made it onto the 2025 shortlist after being released on the final day of eligibility (August 29). Wolf Alice’s ‘The Clearing’ arrived one week earlier on August 20.
The latter band won the 2018 Mercury Prize with their second album, ‘Visions Of A Life’(2017), and were later shortlisted for its follow-up, 2021’s ‘Blue Weekend’. CMAT was also nominated last year for ‘Crazymad, For Me’ (2023).
Last year’s Mercury Prize was held at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios, and saw English Teacher take home the prestigious award for their universally-acclaimed debut LP, ‘This Could Be Texas’.
The former NME Cover stars were the first non-London act to bag the prize since Edinburgh’s Young Fathers won in 2014.
The Mercury Prize is moving from its traditional home in London to Newcastle this year. This comes as part of a new partnership with Newcastle City Council and the North East Combined Authority. The ceremony will follow a week-long regional fringe programme to “celebrate the depth and diversity of talent in the north and create opportunities for local talent”.