Fender beat the likes of Pulp and Wolf Alice - both former winners of the £25,000 prize for the best British or Irish album of the year - at a star-studded ceremony in Newcastle's Utilita Arena.
His victory was met with a deafening cheer from the hometown crowd; who had earlier sung along to every word as he performed the title track of his prize-winning album.The 31-year-old is no stranger to the Mercury Prize – having previously received a nomination for his second record, Seventeen Going Under, in 2022.
"People Watching" was released in February and immediately topped the charts, selling 107,000 copies - making it the fastest-selling album by a British artist since Harry Styles' Harry's House in 2022. Mercury Prize judges called the record "melody-rich and expansive, marrying heartland rock with the realities of everyday life and the importance of community."
Taking to the stage, Fender dedicated the award to his late mentor, Annie Orwin, who he previously described as "a surrogate mother in a lot of ways". "I was honoured and lucky enough to be with her in the last week of her life, and the title track was about her and about grief," "Then the rest of the album is very much local stories, little pictures of Shields, and the people I've grown up with.
But Fender had downplayed his status as the voice of a generation, or even his hometown. "People bandy about those terms all the time, and it's ridiculous." "Saying that somebody's the voice of a generation - I'm not, honestly. I'm an idiot. I'm just writing about my experiences and the experiences of people I know, and people attach such weight to it."
In the run-up to the ceremony, Irish singer CMAT had been the bookmakers' favourite for her third album, Euro-Country. A sharp and witty collection of songs that tackle everything from body shaming to the collapse of Ireland's economy in 2008, it reached number two in the album charts this August, bolstered by a summer of joyous festival perfomances.
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