This year’s Mercury Prize has been rescheduled for next month following its last-minute postponement due to the Queen’s death.
Organisers called off the 2022 ceremony shortly before it was scheduled to begin on September 8 after the news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. “We will make an announcement regarding future arrangements as soon as we are able,” an official statement read.
Today (September 23), it’s been confirmed that the 2022 Mercury Prize with FREE NOW Awards Show will take place on Tuesday, October 18. It’ll remain at its original venue of the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.
BBC Four is due to broadcast the event from 9pm to 10.15pm. Additionally, BBC Radio 6 Music will provide radio coverage with a special show hosted by Tom Ravenscroft from 7pm that evening.
Details of live performances on the night are yet to be announced. The line-up for the original date featured 11 of the 12 shortlisted acts, with Harry Styles being unable to attend.
Styles’ ‘Harry’s House’ is nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize alongside Little Simz’s ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’, Sam Fender’s ‘Seventeen Going Under’, Wet Leg’s self-titled album, Yard Act’s ‘The Overload’ and more.
You can remind yourself of the full list of nominees below.
- Fergus McCreadie – ‘Forest Floor’
- Gwenno – ‘Tresor’
- Harry Styles – ‘Harry’s House’
- Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – ‘For All Our Days That Tear The Heart’
- Joy Crookes – ‘Skin’
- Kojey Radical – ‘Reason To Smile’
- Little Simz – ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’
- Nova Twins – ‘Supernova’
- Sam Fender – ‘Seventeen Going Under’
- Self Esteem – ‘Prioritise Pleasure’
- Wet Leg – ‘Wet Leg’
- Yard Act – ‘The Overload’
Following this month’s cancelled Mercury Prize ceremony, nominee Self Esteem helped donate unused food from event to the homeless.
Over the summer, Self Esteem (aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor) spoke to NME about the honour of being shortlisted for the prestigious prize with her acclaimed second album ‘Prioritise Pleasure’.
“I’m not being coy, but I can’t believe what’s happened,” Taylor explained. “I’d really made my peace with being consistently underground and under-dogged.
“Something has happened where people have connected to [the album]. It’s still kind of a slow-burn and slowly growing – it’s not like my life has changed overnight – but my greatest joy is making music.”