Contenders: Joy Crookes, Fergus McCreadie, Kojey Radical, Sam Fender and Gwenno are all nominated
(Picture: Sony Music UK/Danny Kasiryr/handouts)The “crazy contest between an orange and a spaceship and a potted plant and a spoon” is upon us, as Anohni put it when she won the Mercury Prize with Antony and the Johnsons in 2005.
It’s the £25,000 music award that places 12 British and Irish albums on an equal footing, whether they be chart-topping pop or baffling skronk-jazz that sells six copies, thus provoking fierce debate when the judging panel names one of them the best of the best at the ceremony.
