The Mercury Prize is an annual music award for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its main purpose is through the award to promote the best artists and the best new albums of the year, no matter the genre, to a wider audience. It was established in 1992 by the British Phonographic industry and British Association of Record Dealers. The first ever winners were Primal Scream with ‘Screamadelica’ and this year’s one Skepta with ‘Konnichiwa‘.
The judges at first choose the shortlist of the twelve best albums of the year and through meetings, discussions and voting they eventually conclude to the best one. AmongtThe judges are accomplished musicians, music producers, composers, music journalists and presenters. Since 2016 the audience can choose the best six albums of the shortlist at the night of the award.
Many artists became well known thanks to this music award. And we can still recall their songs more or less. But every album that entered the shortlist, deserved to be heard.
Below, you can check out the award-winning albums from 1992 until 2016:
1992: Primal Scream : ‘Screamadelica‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUjW82je_38″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1993: Suede : ‘Suede‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/i7mEB2wnDLQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1994: M People : ‘Elegant Slumming‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/IwBCyvBMgjQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1995: Portishead : ‘Dummy‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/4qQyUi4zfDs” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1996: Pulp : ‘Different Class‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/yuTMWgOduFM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1997: Rozi Size/Reprazent : ‘New Forms‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/cwI0gbGEyuI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1998: Gomez : ‘Bring It On‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/9drameYoMek” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
1999: Talvin Singh : ‘OK‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/BSx3H86G0Sw” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2000: Badly Drawn Boy : ‘The Hour Of Bewilderbeast‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/RPVAipmV7jY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2001: PJ Harvey : ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/gDBZZ3uvimE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2002: Ms. Dynamite : ‘A Little Deeper‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/FxkRuJz0yrw” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2003: Dizzee Rascal : ‘Boy In Da Corner‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/tntRTRkp2GY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2004: Franz Ferdinand : ‘Franz Ferdinand‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/gbv41rqWERA” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2005: Antony And The Johnsons : ‘I Am A Bird Now‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/LyMGEq82uL4″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2006: Arctic Monkeys : ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/PeQAZsyucbQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2007: Klaxons : ‘Myths Of The Near Future‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/yYKfX60bPrI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2008: Elbow : ‘The Seldom Seen Kid‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/-r3Bs_KkP94″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2009: Speech Debelle : ‘Speech Therapy‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/I98iyEf5a7E” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2010: The xx : ‘xx‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/PElhV8z7I60″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2011: PJ Harvey : ‘Let England Shake‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/5tFBo1QunlA” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2012: Alt-J : ‘An Awesome Wave‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/rVeMiVU77wo” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2013: James Blake : ‘Overgrown‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/6p6PcFFUm5I” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2014: Young Fathers : ‘Dead‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/E7UmjvbmHQM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2015: Benjamin Clementine : ‘At Least For Now‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Dc5BQ31iLw” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
2016: Skepta : ‘Konnichiwa‘
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/4eMeVQjTlgQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
Eleftheria Gesou