Irish acts among favourites at tonight's Mercury Prize

Irish acts CMAT and Fontaines D.C. are set to go head-to-head for the Best Album award at tonight's Mercury Prize.

Sam Fender, Pulp, Wolf Alice, FKA Twigs, PinkPantheress, Pa Salieu, Emma-Jean Thackray, Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, and Martin Carthy complete the 12 artist shortlist. They will battle it out for the coveted trophy which will be awarded in Newcastle later today.

Bookmakers say CMAT is the front-runner with her third album, Euro-Country, however they have reported a late shift in the betting to win this year's Mercury Music Prize, with Fontaines D.C.’s Romance rocketing to second in the outright market, seeing them leapfrog Pulp and FKA Twigs in the space of 24 hours.

The prize, which has been running since 1992 when it was won by Primal Scream's Screamadelica, aims to champion the album format as well as new music in the UK and Ireland across an eclectic range of genres.

CMAT, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, was previously nominated in 2024 for her second album Crazymad, For Me.

She told BBC Radio 6 Music: "It's the highest honour, it's the absolute highest honour that you can receive as someone who makes albums as your medium to express yourself, which is what I do, and I’m particularly proud of Euro-Country, so it really does mean the world to be nominated.

"Can’t wait to see you all at the Mercury Prize. I hope I win, but also if I don’t, no worries if not."

Post-punks Fontaines D.C. have previously been nominated in 2019 for their debut album Dogrel.

The awards are this year judged by a panel that includes jazz star Jamie Cullum, DJ Jamz Supernova, and The Times' pop and rock critic Will Hodgkinson, and is chaired by Radio 2 head of music Jeff Smith.

The 2025 ceremony will be the first time the awards have been held outside of London at Newcastle's Utilita Arena, where it will feature live performances for a number of the nominees.

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