Sam Fender has won the 2025 Mercury Prize, awarded by a music-industry panel to the best British album of the year. The North Shields singer-songwriter’s album People Watching fended off competition from FKA twigs (Eusexua), PinkPantheress (Fancy That), Fontaines D.C. (Romance), Pulp (More), Pa Salieu (Afrikan Alien), Wolf Alice (The Clearing), CMAT (Euro-Country), and others. See Fender’s Mercury Prize performance and acceptance speech below.
Last year, English Teacher won the award for This Could Be Texas, beating the likes of Charli XCX and double-nominee CMAT.