Young Fathers have won this year’s Mercury Prize with their debut album ‘Dead’.
The winner of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2014 was announced at London’s Roundhouse earlier this evening (October 29). The hip-hop group gave a short acceptance speech, telling the audience: “Thank you. We love you.” Young Fathers performed their track ‘Get Up’ at the ceremony.
On NME Blogs: Why Young Fathers’ single-minded craftsmanship deserved to win
Chair of the judges, Simon Frith, said of the group’s win: “Young Fathers have a unique take on urban British music, brimming with ideas – forceful, unexpected and moving.”
James Blake won the award last year for his second album ‘Overgrown’, while Alt-J took the prize in 2012 for their debut release ‘An Awesome Wave’. FKA Twigs was the favourite to win the prize this year.
FKA Twigs, Royal Blood and GoGo Penguin received the biggest boost in sales after being nominated for the prize. Official Chart Company data showed that all three artists had seen a big increase in sales ahead of this year’s ceremony. Royal Blood‘s successful debut album sold 59,000 copies since it was revealed as one of the 12 nominees in this year’s contest, a rise of 62 per cent that brings the album’s total sales up to 154,318 for the year.
Elsewhere, FKA Twigs and Kate Tempest had both seen their album sales rise significantly, with Tempest’s ‘Everybody Down’ soaring 124 per cent and selling more copies in the period since its nomination than in total for the period before that. FKA Twigs ‘LP1’, meanwhile, had a sales increase of 83 per cent.