Raye wins the 2026 Mercury Prize for This Music May Contain Hope
The singer's second album beat records by Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to take the £25,000 award at a ceremony in Newcastle.
Raye has won this year's Mercury Prize with her second album, This Music May Contain Hope. The result was announced on Thursday night at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, and the 28-year-old collected the £25,000 prize and trophy before performing on stage.
It is the first time a pop album has taken the prize since M People won with Elegant Slumming in 1994. It is also Raye's first Mercury win, after her debut album My 21st Century Blues was shortlisted in 2023.
The album
This Music May Contain Hope came out in March and went straight to number one in the UK albums chart. It runs to 17 tracks and 73 minutes and tells the story of a relationship that ends in Paris, followed by the singer picking herself up again.
The record is built on a big, old-fashioned sound, with four orchestras and more than 100 musicians taking part. Her grandparents and the American soul singer Al Green also appear. It includes the hit single Where Is My Husband?, and at the ceremony she performed I Hate The Way I Look Today.
The album was held up for almost a year after her car was stolen two years ago, along with her songwriting notebooks and demo recordings. They were later recovered.
In interviews after her win, Raye told the BBC she had put everything into the record and had not set out to make something designed to sell. In her speech she described music as a kind of medicine.
Who else was shortlisted
The 12 albums in the running this year included:
- Olivia Dean, The Art of Loving, which had already won album of the year at the Brit Awards and the Mobos
- Sir Paul McCartney, The Boys of Dungeon Lane
- Jade, That's Showbiz, Baby, the first Mercury nomination for an X Factor winner
- Dove Ellis, Blizzard
- Albums by Dave, Suede, Florence + The Machine, Nia Archives, Kojey Radical and the Newcastle jazz group Knats
- Help (2), a charity compilation in aid of War Child
About the prize
The Mercury Prize was set up in 1992 to recognise the best album of the past 12 months by a British or Irish act. It was intended as a contrast to the more commercially minded Brit Awards, rewarding records that push music forward rather than those that sell the most. A judging panel, chaired this year by Jeff Smith, picks the shortlist and the winner.
Many people assume it is a prize for debut albums. In fact 20 of the 35 winners have been first records, by acts including Arctic Monkeys, Suede and Franz Ferdinand, but second and later albums are just as eligible. Only two debuts made this year's list.
The judges praised the scale and ambition of Raye's record. She is the first solo female artist to win since Little Simz in 2022.
