Fontaines D.C. Nominated for Mercury Prize 2019: Update

Fontaines D.C. have been nominated for a Mercury Award for their album Dogrel.

The news comes as a huge boost for the Dublin band – who have already taken the fast-track to success by charting at No.4 in the UK with the album, and doing incendiary live shows all over Europe and in the US. The winner of the Mercury Prize picks up a cheque for £25,000.

Over 200 albums are submitted for consideration by a panel of judges that includes former winners, including the likes of Stormzy and Jorja Smith. Also among the panelists is Annie Mac, the highly influential Dublin-born DJ, who works with the BBC. That the Fontaines D.C. album fully merits inclusion is clear. It is choc-a-bloc with powerfully conceived songs that are imbued with a real sense of time and place, and written with an unmistakable poetic power.

“There is substance behind the clamour,” John Walshe wrote, reviewing the album in Hot Press, "as they boys channel anger and aggression into some of the most visceral guitar music this country has produced in a generation… Big? They’re gonna be fuckin’ massive."

However, waltzing away with the prize will not be easy. Others on the shortlist for the Mercury Prize include Idles' monumental Joy As An Act of Resistance, which was the Hot Press Album of the Year for 2018; rapper Dave’s highly acclaimed Psychodrama; and Foals’ Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1. Boris Johnson will doubtless be thrilled to see that Slowthai's Nothing Great About Britain has also been included.

This is the first album by an Irish artist or band to be nominated since Roisin Murphy’s Hairless Toys and Soak’s Before We Forgot How To Dream, in 2015. Numerous albums by Irish acts have been nominated for the Mercury Prize over the years, including Villagers (Awayland, 2013 and Becoming a Jackal, 2010), Lisa Hannigan (Sea Sew, 2009), Fionn Regan (The End of History, 2007) and Snow Patrol (Final Straw, 2004). However, no Irish artist has ever gone on to win the prize. Last year’s winner was Wolf Alice with Visions of a Life. The only artist to have won the Prize twice is PJ Harvey (with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, 2001 and Let Englands Shake, 2011).

The winner of the Mercury Prize will be announced on 19 September.

The Mercury Prize Shortlist for 2019 in full is:

Dave - Psychodrama
The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Idles - Joy As An Act Of Resistance
Anna Calvi - Hunter
Little Simz - Grey Area
Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1
Slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain
Fontaines DC - Dogrel
Black Midi - Schlagenheim
Cate Le Bon - Reward
Nao - Saturn
Seed Ensemble - Driftglass