Music
10 Sep 25

CMAT and Fontaines D.C. score nominations for Mercury Prize

The overall winner of the prestigious prize will be revealed in Newcastle next month.

The nominations for this year's Mercury Prize have been announced – with CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY and Fontaines D.C.'s Romance among the shortlisted albums.

The awards ceremony is set to take place at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Thursday, October 16, and will feature performances from several of the nominated acts, before the overall winner is revealed. 2025 marks the first time that the Mercury Prize – which celebrates 'the best British and Irish music of the year' – will take place outside of London.

This is both CMAT and Fontaines D.C.'s second time scoring nominations for the prestigious prize – for 2023's Crazymad, For Me and 2019's Dogrel, respectively.

CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY, released on August 29, is currently No.1 on the Irish Albums Chart, and No.2 in the UK. It scored a rave 10-star review in Hot Press, and was named our Album of the Month.

"I had a weird thing happen at the Mercury Prize 2024 when Annie Mac was announcing who the winner was," the Irish singer wrote on social media this morning, in response to her nomination. "As she was reading it I had this weird flip in my stomach, that I didn’t want to win the Mercury Prize for THAT record, because I had a feeling that I could make something better. Two days later I started to make EURO-COUNTRY. The Mercury Prize put a bottle rocket up my bum, to try and do something a bit more cutting edge and experimental and intense, if that make sense.

"I didn’t necessarily expect to be nominated again as a result but I am very happy to have been..."

Released last August, Fontaines D.C.'s Romance was crowned Hot Press's No.1 Best Album of 2024. It also won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year.

See the full Mercury Prize shortlist below: