Sam Fender has won the 2025 Mercury Prize for his album People Watching. The annual award is given to best album released by a musical act from the UK or Ireland, as determined by a panel of music industry figures. One of those judges, BBC DJ Sian Eleri, said People Watching had "cohesion, character, and ambition" and felt like a classic album, one that will take pride of place in record collections for years to come."
Upon accepting the award, Fender led the crowd in a "Toon, Toon" chant in honor of his hometown football club Newcastle United. This year's Mercury Prize ceremony was held in Newcastle, too, so maybe Fender is right that the music industry is "rigged." (Haha, just joking. Unless...)
After accepting the award, Fender performed the title track from People Watching. He was previously shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2022 for Seventeen Going Under. Incidentally, he a new single called "Talk To You" featuring Elton John coming out tomorrow.
People Watching was co-produced by the War On Drugs' Adam Granduciel, who has called Fender a "musical savant." Fender has been politically vocal during the People Watching album cycle, welcoming activist Greta Thunberg to the stage for a "Free Palestine!" chant and protesting the UK government's stance on AI.
This year's other nominees were the latest releases by CMAT, Emma-Jean Thackray, FKA twigs, Fontaines D.C., Jacob Alon, Joe Webb, Martin Carthy, Pa Salieu, PinkPantheress, Pulp, and Wolf Alice.
Last year's Mercury Prize went to English Teacher's This Could Be Texas.
@arenanewcastle Our hometown hero has only gone and WON the @Mercury Prize ??
♬ original sound - Utilita Arena Newcastle
@samfenderfeed PROUD @Sam Fender #samfender #mercuryprize #albumoftheyear
♬ original sound - samfenderfeed
The BBC are accidentally running the subtitles to Mrs Marple over the Mercury Prize, and it’s rather wonderful. A few of lines could plausibly have been written by Jarvis.
— Peter Chilvers (@peterchilvers.com) October 16, 2025 at 4:58 PM
