Sam Fender wins the 2025 Mercury Prize for his album People Watching | Mercury Prize

Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury Prize for his chart-topping album People Watching.

Announcing the award, BBC radio DJ and judge Sian Ellery said the album had “coherence, character and ambition. It felt like a classic, one that will hold a prominent place in record collections for years to come”.

Fender, 31, grew up in North Shields, near where this year’s awards ceremony is being held, in Newcastle. He achieved rapid success with his debut album Hypersonic Missiles in 2019, which topped the UK Albums Chart, then cemented his epic and poignant sound on sophomore album Seventeen Going Under (2021), and again with People Watching, released in February. This took him to greater commercial heights, producing two Top 10 singles and leading to a series of stadium concerts.

This year’s Mercury Prize shortlist included a number of commercially successful albums alongside somewhat lesser-known names.

People Watching, Wolf Alice’s The Clearing and Pulp More’s comeback album all topped the UK album chart, while CMAT’s Euro-Country, FKA twigs’ Eusexua, Fontaines DC’s Romance and PinkPantheress’s Fancy That reached All into the top three. CMAT was the bookies’ favourite, followed by Fontaines DC and Pulp.

Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Allon, rapper Pa Saliu, jazz-funk artist Emma-Jean Thackray and Welsh pianist Joe Webb have also been nominated.

The award also had its oldest nominee ever: English folk singer Martin Carthy, 84, who was honored for his album “Transform Me Then Into a Fish.”

Carthy’s career dates back to the early 1960s in London, where he influenced Bob Dylan, and taught him the Scarborough Standard Fair. He later made recordings with his wife Norma Waterson, and their daughter Eliza Carthy followed them into popular music, receiving two Mercury Prize nominations in 1998 and 2003.

Martin and Eliza performed a version of Scarborough Fair together with sitarist Shima Mukherjee at the concert. Alon, Fender, FKA twigs, Pulp, Salieu, Thackray, Webb and Wolf Alice also performed the song live.

CMAT was also present, but was not performed due to recent treatment of two wisdom teeth. “I was thinking about making jewelery out of them,” she told BBC 6 Music. “I want to make other candidates kiss my teeth for good luck, but not tell them it’s my good luck.”

Wolf Alice became the first act to be nominated for each of their first four albums. Both it and Pulp have one win from four nominations.

In 2024, the Mercury Prize looked to be in a somewhat parlous state, having failed to secure a sponsor for the event and having to make do with a limited awards ceremony without live performances.

But she came back with a vengeance in 2025, moving to Newcastle and using the city’s Utilita Arena as a venue. It also hosted a range of Fringe Mercury events in the days leading up to the awards ceremony, with artistic performances, workshops and panel discussions. Alon, Carthy, Fender, FKA twigs, Pulp, Salieu, Thackray, Webb and Wolf Alice all performed live at the concert.

The Guardian’s analysis of the new winners found that between 2014 and 2023, every winner was from London, with English Leeds band Al-Muallem finally securing a win from outside the capital in 2024.

The move to Newcastle has therefore been lauded, as it helps counter the generally London-centric music industry. Ian Murray, Minister for Creative Industries, Media and the Arts, said the “symbolic move” was “hugely welcome… For too long, other regions have had to play second fiddle to London, despite having world-class creative production in their own right.”

The Mercury Prize is voted for by a panel of music industry figures: jazz musician and broadcaster Jamie Cullum; radio DJs Sian Ellery, Jamz Supernova, Mustagam and Daniel Perry; Journalists Phil Alexander, Will Hodgkinson and Sophie Williams; music consultant Leah Stonehill; Chair of the judging panel is Geoff Smith, Head of Music for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music.

The award, established in 1992, is described as “a celebration of the 12 albums of the year, recognizing artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres.” The most nominated artists are Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys, who each have five, while PJ Harvey is the only artist to have won the award twice.

Fender won prize money of £25,000. The judges’ statement added that People Watching is “melodically rich and expansive, marrying rock music with the realities of everyday life and the importance of community. These are thoughtful songs with broad appeal, as cinematic as they are intimate.”