2024 Mercury Prize boost for English Teacher 18 Sep 2024
WINNING ALBUM ‘THIS COULD BE TEXAS’ RE-ENTERS OFFICIAL ALBUMS CHART TOP 40 FOLLOWING A 1,073% RISE IN SALES AND STREAMS
SHORTLISTED ARTISTS AND THEIR ALBUMS OF THE YEAR ALSO SEE BENEFIT
UK record labels association the BPI, which organises the Mercury Prize, today reports a marked increase in demand for English Teacher’s album This Could Be Texas, after the Leeds band were selected as the overall winner of the 2024 Prize on 5th September. Many of the other 12 Albums of the Year have benefitted also.
The Awards Show on 5th September saw the shortlisted artists come together at the iconic Abbey Road Studios to enjoy each other’s recent recorded performances and to celebrate each other’s work, before English Teacher were announced as the overall winner. The show was broadcast live on BBC Four and presented by Annie Macmanus and 6 Music presenter Huw Stephens. Guest presenter, judge and 6 Music DJ Jamz Supernova, announced the overall winner on behalf of the judging team.
According to BPI analysis of Official Charts Company data, English Teacher’s This Could Be Texasalbum saw a chart sales increase of 1,073% in the week after the Award Show, resulting in its best performance since its week of release. It re-entered at number 40 on the Official Albums Chart from being unplaced the week before.
A number of the other shortlisted albums have also reaped the benefits of a place on the 2024 list, including those by BERWYN, Corinne Bailey Rae and corto.alto, whose albums all saw week-on-week chart sales increases of over 100%.
This year, digital impressions on the day of the Award Show were up by a third to 80 million impressions, with a bespoke content rollout across Instagram, Tiktok, X/Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Reflecting on this year’s 2024 Mercury Prize, Dr Jo Twist, BPI Chief Executive, said: “We were all delighted by this year’s Mercury Prize, not only as it took place at the ‘home of the album’, Abbey Road Studios, but it again achieved a marked promotional impact to support the artists reach a wider audience and introduce their exceptional Albums of the Year to more fans. We congratulate English Teacher and all the artists on their brilliant achievement, and we thank our valued partners the BBC and Bowers & Wilkins and everyone who helped to make this year’s event a success. We look forward to the 2025 Mercury Prize and to celebrating more exceptional music.”
The Mercury Prize is a prestigious arts prize that celebrates the ‘art of the album’ and artists sharing their stories through the artform. Each year the independent judging panel shines a light on exceptional music from diverse talent drawn from the UK and Ireland, across well known names and emerging artists, and reflecting a range of music genres, so that each body of work can be celebrated and enjoyed by a wider audience.
The Prize’s broadcast partner, BBC Music, provided live television and radio coverage of the event. The television coverage of ‘Mercury Prize 2024: Album of the Year’ is available here on iPlayer.
Annie, Huw and artists Cat Burns and Corinne Bailey Rae also appeared on The One Show on 5thSeptember, live from Abbey Road Studios. That programme is also available on iPlayer now.
6 Music broadcast ‘Mercury Prize 2024 - Live’ presented by Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant, with Matt Everitt interviewing the artists behind each of the 12 Albums of The Year. The show included the announcement of the overall winner of the 2024 Mercury Prize, with the winning album then played out in full on air.
Also available on Sounds is a Mercury Prize 2024 collection, which features Matt Everitt’s Pocket Guides (3 x 60 mins) to all twelve albums, along with two playlists – one celebrating this year’s Albums of The Year and another celebrating previous Mercury Prize winners. The collection features archive interviews, deep cuts and more.
The 2024 Mercury Prize 12 ‘Albums of the Year’ are:
Barry Can't Swim ‘When Will We Land?’
BERWYN ‘Who Am I’
Beth Gibbons ‘Lives Outgrown’
Cat Burns ‘early twenties’
Charli xcx ‘BRAT’
CMAT ‘Crazymad, for Me’
Corinne Bailey Rae ‘Black Rainbows’
corto.alto ‘Bad with Names’
English Teacher ‘This Could Be Texas’
Ghetts ‘On Purpose, With Purpose’
Nia Archives ‘Silence Is Loud’
The Last Dinner Party ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’
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THE HEADLINES
Did things really get better in 2025 for the UK's music business? (see Comment)
BRIT Awards 2026: Nominations and reactions (see News)
Music Venue Trust annual report highlights ongoing issues, and optimism (see News)
Do Spotify’s AI Playlists change how algorithmic discovery actually works? (see Features)
A&R 2026: We lost "R" (see Opinion)
Do most artists peak with their first album? (see Analysis)
Court battle over unpaid royalties could have implications for the industry in the streaming era (see News)
Luminate released its 2025 year-end music report (see Reports)
Impala sets out crucial questions on UMG/Downtown, AI, sovereignty and more for EU & music sector (see Comment)
Spotify’s new co-CEOs highlight what’s ahead for the company (see Digital)
Music publishers sued by X in growing licensing battle (see News)
Call on EU to clamp down on unauthorised ticket reselling (see News)