Last Thursday, September 20, we were on hand at the 2018 Hyundai Mercury Prize ceremony, to witness alternative rock band Wolf Alice claim the prestigious prize at the second time of asking, with their critically acclaimed sophomore album Visions Of A Life, which was released in September of last year. Their first album My Love Is Cool was nominated in 2015, but lost to Benjamin Clementine.
This time around, the 4-piece band led by Ellie Roswell, battled for the Hyundai Mercury Prize against the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Everything Everything, Florence + The Machine, Jorja Smith, King Krule, Lily Allen, Nadine Shah, Noel Gallagher, Novelist, and Sons Of Kemet, and came out on top, after topping several ‘Album of the Year’ lists last year.
On the night, Florence + The Machine kicked off the show with an acoustic performance of “Hunger”, taken from their High As Hope album, which was one of the best-selling records on the 12-deep shortlist. Other performances on the night include Jorja Smith with “Blue Lights”, Nadine Shah with “Out The Way”, and Novelist with “Nov Wait Stop Wait”, to mention a few stand-out performances.
In case you didn’t know, every year, the Hyundai Mercury Prize promotes the best albums released in the UK by British and Irish artists and bands, highlighting a shortlist of twelve of the best albums of the year, with one finally winning the ‘Mercury Prize’ award. This is the third year that Hyundai is sponsoring the Prize, which celebrates artistic achievement, innovation, and helps to introduce new albums from a range of music genres to a wider audience.
Congratulations once again to Wolf Alice for winning the #HyundaiMercuryPrize, check out their acceptance speech and their performance of “Don’t Delete The Kisses” below.
#Peace.Love.WolfAlice
