Paul McCartney earns first Mercury Prize nomination
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- Paul McCartney receives his first-ever Mercury Prize nomination for "The Boys of Dungeon Lane," a reflective album about his Liverpool childhood and early Beatles friendships, with McCartney telling the Guardian he felt John Lennon's presence while writing it
- Olivia Dean is nominated for "The Art of Loving," which won big at this year's Brit Awards and spent 42 of its 43 weeks since release in the UK Top 5, including eight weeks at No. 1
- Dave earns a nomination for "The Boy Who Played the Harp," which contains the global hit "Raindance" and won five stars in the Guardian; Dave previously won the Mercury with his 2019 debut "Psychodrama"
- Help(2), a War Child charity compilation recorded at Abbey Road, is only the second compilation ever nominated for the Mercury after 1995's "The Help Album," featuring contributions from Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, Sampha, Beth Gibbons, and others
- Florence + the Machine lands her fourth nomination for "Everybody Scream" — if she loses, only Radiohead will have been nominated more times without winning
- Eight of the 12 shortlisted albums feature artists of colour, and the prize will be decided by an 11-person panel at Newcastle's Utilita Arena on 22 October
- Notable snubs include Lily Allen's "West End Girl," Harry Styles, Kneecap, Charli xcx's "Wuthering Heights" soundtrack, and Blood Orange's "Essex Honey," which missed the eligibility cutoff by one day
Why it matters: McCartney's first-ever nomination after a 60+ year career is the headline, but the real story is Dean's commercial dominance — no Mercury nominee in recent memory has had eight weeks at UK No. 1 and a sweep of the Brit Awards. With Raye, Florence, and a previous winner in Dave also on the list, Dean enters as the favorite, and the Help(2) compilation's inclusion marks only the second time a multi-artist project has ever been shortlisted in the prize's 34-year history.
