LONDON – British band XX won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for best British or Irish album last night, beating better-known names such as Paul Weller, Dizzee Rascal and Corinne Bailey Rae.
The Mercury Prize, awarded annually since 1992, is now sponsored by Barclaycard, which has taken over from the Nationwide Building Society.
The prize has often been given to new or non-commercial acts and pits different genres against one another, ranging from folk and jazz to hard rock.
The winner receives £20,000, although the boost from album sales can be worth much more. The award focuses on musical quality. It doesnt take into account album sales, media profile or live performances.
Among acts boosted in the past by a Mercury Prize were rapper Dizzee Rascal (real name: Dylan Mills), who won in 2003 for Boy in Da Corner, and Badly Drawn Boy (aka Damon Gough), the 2000 winner for The Hour of Bewilderbeast, both on the independent XL Recordings label.
Last years winner was Speech Debelle, with Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid(Fiction Records) the year before.
The Klaxons won in 2007 with Myths of the Near Future(Polydor). Previous hit albums that were nominated for the Mercury Prize but failed to win include Robbie Williams's Life Thru a Lensin 1998, when the award went to Bring It Onby Gomez, and OK Computerby Radiohead in 1997, beaten by Roni Size/Reprazent's New Forms. – (Bloomberg)