Arctic Monkeys, Jessie Ware, Fred Again.. Among Finalists for 2023 Mercury Prize: Complete List – Billboard

Zackery MIchael

Arctic Monkeys’ The Car was named one of the 12 albums of the year by the 2023 Mercury Awards on Thursday (July 27). It’s the band’s fifth album to be shortlisted for the honor, which puts them in a tie with Radiohead for the most shortlisted albums since the award was introduced in 1992.

Arctic Monkeys won the award in 2006 with Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and were finalists with Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), AM (2013), Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018) and now The Car. Radiohead was shortlisted with OK Computer (1997), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), In Rainbows (2008) and A Moon Shaped Pool (2016). Radiohead has yet to win the award.

Should Arctic Monkeys win again, they will join PJ Harvey as the only two-time winners of the award. Harvey won in 2001 with Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea and in 2011 with Let England Shake.

Two of the shortlisted albums — The Car and Fred Again..’s, Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022) appeared on Billboard’s list of The 50 Best Albums of 2022: Staff List.

The Mercury Prize — officially known as The Mercury Prize with FREENOW — celebrates the best of British and Irish music across a range of contemporary music genres.

The 2023 awards show will take place on Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London. The event will feature live performances from many of the shortlisted artists and the evening will culminate in the announcement of the overall winner.

The shortlist was revealed at a launch event. It was also announced live on BBC Radio 6 Music by Tom Ravenscroft as part of a Mercury Prize special. BBC Music, The Mercury Prize’s broadcast partner, will provide coverage of the event across BBC TV, radio, online and social media.

The shortlist was chosen by an independent judging panel chaired by Jeff Smith, head of music, 6 Music & Radio 2. Unlike judging panels for the Grammy Awards, where the members’ names are not revealed, the Mercury Prize publishes the names of all of the committee members. In addition to Smith, this year’s committee consisted of: Anna Calvi – musician, songwriter & composer; Danielle Perry – broadcaster & writer; Hannah Peel – musician, songwriter & composer; Jamie Cullum – musician & broadcaster; Jamz Supernova – broadcaster & DJ; Lea Stonhill – music programming consultant;  Mistajam – songwriter, DJ & broadcaster; Phil Alexander – creative director, Kerrang!/contributing editor, Mojo; Sian Eleri – broadcaster & DJ, Tshepo Mokoena – music writer & author; Will Hodgkinson – chief rock & pop critic, The Times.

Here’s the complete list of 2023 Mercury Prize albums of the year: