The 2020 Mercury prize for the year’s best British album has gone to Michael Kiwanuka for his self-titled album, 'Kiwanuka', BBC reports. He has been nominated for each of his previous albums: 'Home Again' (2012) and 'Love & Hate' (2016). He gets the honor and wins £25,000 this year. The other nominated artists this year were Anna Meredith, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Georgia, Kano, Lanterns on the Lake, Laura Marling, Moses Boyd, Porridge Radio, Sports Team, and Stormzy.

Female artists and female-fronted bands - like Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and Porridge Radio - have outnumbered men on the shortlist for this year's Mercury Prize, for the first time in its 29-year history, Sky reports. A total of seven female or female-fronted acts (of 12 nominees) made the 2020 shortlist; the previous highest total was five. In general, this year pop dominated the shortlist, with none left of the field albums.

The nominees:

Anna Meredith - ‘FIBS‘
Charli XCX - ‘how i’m feeling now‘
Dua Lipa - ‘Future Nostalgia‘
Georgia - ‘Seeking Thrills‘
Kano - ‘Hoodies All Summer‘
Lanterns on the Lake - ‘Spook the Herd‘
Laura Marling - ‘Song for Our Daughter‘
Michael Kiwanuka - ‘KIWANUKA‘
Moses Boyd - ‘Dark Matter‘
Porridge Radio - ‘Every Bad‘
Sports Team - ‘Deep Down Happy‘
Stormzy - ‘Heavy is the Head‘

London rapper Dave has won the 2019 Mercury Prize with his debut album 'Psychodrama', a critically acclaimed concept album about mental health, relationships and social conditions. This year the Mercury shortlist was just great: 1975‘s 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships', slowthai‘s 'Nothing Great About Britain', black midi‘s 'Schlagenheim', Little Simz‘s 'GREY area', Foals‘ 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1', Nao‘s 'Saturn', IDLES‘ 'Joy as […]

Guardian has an interview with Black Midi, nominated for the prestigious British Mercury Music Award, trying to explain their music. The journalist of the London paper says their album 'Schlagenheim' reminds her of "the ambience of the internet – a cacophonous, always shifting stream of sonic information that feels spellbinding in part because you can’t […]

"The rap, grime and future R&B (Nao, slowthai, Little Simz, Dave) represented the most incisive rising British talent, the guitar rock (Idles, Fontaines D.C., Black Midi) was suitably disjointed, angular and innovative, the poised and/or melodramatic art-pop (Anna Calvi, Cate le Bon) bore not the faintest trace of Paloma or Florence, the bigger names (The […]

NME's Marc Beaumont argues why Wolf Alice were the one to win this year's Mercury Award: "Wolf Alice weren’t there because they were anybody’s priority act, sold a shit-ton of records, reflected any cultural movement, were the Arctic Monkeys or were a jazz band. They were there because they’re a brilliant band with a brilliant album. […]