Sam Fender Wins 2025 Mercury Prize for People Watching

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 DC (Romance), Pulp (Moree), Pa Salieu (African 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 Texasbeating the likes of Charli XCX and double-nominee CMAT.