Raye wins the 2026 Mercury Prize for This Music May Contain Hope

A win in Newcastle

Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize for her second album, This Music May Contain Hope. The result was announced on the night of Thursday 22 October at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, where the prize was held for the second year running.

The DJ and broadcaster Sian Eleri, one of the judges, handed her the trophy on behalf of the panel. Raye then performed I Hate The Way I Look Today from the album, and the Mercury Prize says she was given a standing ovation. Lauren Laverne hosted the awards show, which BBC Four and BBC iPlayer carried from 9.30pm, with live coverage on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds presented by Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd.

The win comes with a £25,000 cash prize and the winner's trophy. Each of the 12 shortlisted acts also receives an Album of the Year trophy, because the prize treats all 12 records as albums of the year and picks one overall winner.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas reported this first for The Guardian. Checked against Mercury Prize: Raye announced as overall winner of the 2026 Mercury Prize.

What the judges said

The judges called the album "suitably titled". In their citation they said it is divided into four sections and moves from jazz to soul and from R&B to classical, mixing old Hollywood glamour with kitchen sink realism to tell the story of a young woman getting through the everyday trials of life and love.

They said Raye shows "real imagination and scope in showing what an album can be", and that the record goes beyond any one style or genre. The panel also used the citation to argue for the album itself. Their statement said the 12 records showed that the album is still the best way for an artist to put a full artistic statement into the world, even in the age of streaming, and that the "scale, structure, ambition and sheer charm" of the winner made it the right choice.

The panel was chaired by Jeff Smith, head of music at BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music. The other judges were the composer and DJ Afrodeutsche, the broadcaster and musician Danielle Perry, the musician and Radio 2 presenter Jamie Cullum, the music programming consultant Lea Brook, the songwriter and broadcaster MistaJam, Phil Alexander of Kerrang! and MOJO, Sian Eleri, the writer and broadcaster Sophie Williams, and Will Hodgkinson, chief rock and pop critic of The Times. Under the prize's rules the same panel meets again on the day of the show and decides the winner that night.

In her own words

Raye told the arena: "I cannot tell you how grateful I am to be holding this." She said she was shaking and jet-lagged, and spoke about how much albums matter to her after years in which she had been pushed towards singles, as Ben Beaumont-Thomas reported for The Guardian.

She also talked about the word in the album's title, saying that hope is not something British people find easy to talk about, but that everyone needs it, and that she wanted the message to reach anyone who needed it.

The background explains why that landed. Raye spent years as a featured singer on other artists' dance and pop hits, and in 2021 she said publicly that her then record label would not let her release a full album, The Guardian noted. She left that label and released her debut, My 21st Century Blues, as an independent artist in 2023. Both of her albums since have been made on her own terms, and both are now among the most decorated British records of the decade.

The shortlist she beat

The 12 albums of the year were announced on 30 July on BBC Radio 6 Music by Jamz Supernova. Alongside Raye they were Dave's The Boy Who Played the Harp, Dove Ellis's Blizzard, Florence + The Machine's Everybody Scream, Jade's That's Showbiz Baby!, Knats' A Great Day In Newcastle, Kojey Radical's Don't Look Down, Nia Archives' Emotional Junglist, Olivia Dean's The Art of Loving, Paul McCartney's The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Suede's Antidepressants, and HELP(2), the War Child Records charity album.

Ten of the acts played one track each on the night: Dove Ellis, Florence + The Machine, Jade, Knats, Kojey Radical, Nia Archives, Olivia Dean, Raye, Suede, and Pulp, who performed on behalf of the HELP(2) album. Dave and Paul McCartney did not perform. McCartney, shortlisted for the first time, sent a video message saying he was chuffed to be nominated, The Guardian reported.

Several of the beaten acts have Mercury history of their own. Suede won the second ever prize, in 1993, for their first album. Dave won in 2019 for Psychodrama. Pulp won in 1996. The Guardian noted that Florence + The Machine now share with Radiohead the record for the most nominations without a win, at five.

It was also a commercially strong shortlist. The Guardian counted six of the 12 albums as UK Number 1s and two more as top three hits, and some critics have argued the prize is drifting closer to the Brit Awards. The prize itself says it is open to every genre, that more than 200 albums are entered each year, and that the judges decide on the music alone.

How Raye got here

Raye, born Rachel Agatha Keen, grew up in Tooting in south London and went to the BRIT School. She was on the BBC Sound of 2017 list and first reached the charts as the featured voice on Jonas Blue's By Your Side, which peaked at Number 15, before working with David Guetta, Joel Corry, Disclosure and Regard, according to the Official Charts Company.

Her breakthrough as a solo artist came in January 2023, when Escapism, with 070 Shake, became the first UK Number 1 single of that year. My 21st Century Blues followed and peaked at Number 2 on the Official Albums Chart. That album was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2023, the year Ezra Collective won, and Raye went on to a record seven Brit Award nominations. In March 2024 she won six Brits in one night, including album of the year, the most any artist has won at a single ceremony.

This Music May Contain Hope arrived in spring 2026. Its lead single, Where Is My Husband!, was the first UK Number 1 single of 2026, which meant Raye had opened the singles year at the top twice in four years. The album went straight to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in the week of 3 April 2026, her first chart-topping album, and also topped the Official Vinyl Albums Chart that week. The Guardian described it as a 73-minute record taking in big band jazz, power ballads and funk, and reported that Where Is My Husband! also reached Number 6 in the US.

By the Official Charts Company's count, Raye now has two UK Number 1 singles, six top 10 singles and 21 top 40 singles, along with two top 10 albums.

The Mercury effect

The prize has long been known for sending winners back up the charts, and this year was no different. On 27 October the Mercury Prize, using BPI analysis of Official Charts Company data, said chart sales of This Music May Contain Hope had risen by 275% since the announcement. The album was at Number 11 on the midweek Official Albums Chart, up from 88 the week before.

Where Is My Husband! climbed from 51 to 31 on the midweek singles chart, and My 21st Century Blues came back into the albums chart at 175 after a 47% rise in sales. Other shortlisted acts saw their streams rise too, including Knats, the Newcastle jazz band whose home-city album was on the list.

The prize also said the night drew the biggest audience it has ever had across its own social media channels, with the clip of Raye's winning moment watched 2.3 million times. Jo Twist, chief executive of the BPI, the record labels association that is home to the prize, said the 12 albums "all deserve to be appreciated by a wider audience".

A prize that moved north

The Mercury Prize describes itself as the music equivalent of the Booker Prize, and since 1992 it has picked one British or Irish album of the year. Recent winners include Sam Fender for People Watching in 2025, English Teacher in 2024, Ezra Collective in 2023, Little Simz in 2022 and Arlo Parks in 2021.

After losing its sponsor and holding a low-key ceremony in 2024, the prize moved to Newcastle in 2025 in partnership with Newcastle City Council and scaled up to an arena show. This year it added a week-long Mercury Prize Fringe from 15 to 22 October, with more than 30 events around the city, including a screening of Sam Fender's London Stadium concert film at the Tyneside Cinema and an evening with Knats at the John Marley Centre.

Albums by British or Irish acts released between 30 August 2025 and 17 July 2026 were eligible this year. The 2027 eligibility window and shortlist date have not been announced.

What it means for fans

Raye has no UK headline dates on StubHub at the moment; the shows we track for her are festival and radio events. If you want to know when she announces UK dates, the alert below will email you when new dates appear and when prices drop.

Two of the acts she beat are touring the UK this winter. Suede are on the road with Manic Street Preachers through November, including The O2 in London on 6 November and Cardiff's Utilita Arena on 3 and 4 November. On 30 October StubHub listed the London date from £78 and the Nottingham date on 11 November from £35, plus StubHub booking fees at checkout.

Nia Archives plays a run of UK club and hall dates from 22 November, from Glasgow's Barrowland to Alexandra Palace in London on 26 November, which StubHub listed from £37 on 30 October, plus StubHub booking fees at checkout. Prices on resale move with demand, and the live prices for each of these dates print below this story, checked hourly.

Tickets today

What StubHub lists now, checked hourly. Prices are listing prices; StubHub adds its booking fees at checkout.