Mercury Prize Favourites Announced Already

Plan B and Richard Hawley have been established as the early favourites to win the 2012 Mercury Music Prize with bookmakers. The nominations for the annual prize were announced yesterday with both Plan B’s ‘iLL Manors’ and ‘Standing At Sky’s Edge’ by Richard Hawley making the grade alongside albums by Alt-J, The Maccabees and Jessie Ware on the shortlist of twelve.

Django Django, Field Music, Michael Kiwanuka were also included on the shortlist with Hawley and Plan B early favourites with bookmaker William Hill giving them odds of 4/1 for victory. Other albums seen to be in with a chance at the Mercury include 5/1 bets Django Django and Alt-J. Folk duo Michael Kiwanuka and Ben Howard are also in the running, both of whom have odds of 8/1 along with Lianne La Havas. Field Music, Roller Trio and Sam Lee, all nominated this year, are seen as outsiders by the bookies with odds of 10/1.

PJ Harvey won the Mercury Prize in 2011 for her album ‘Let England Shake’. Other acts to win the prize in recent years include The xx, Klaxons, Elbow, Arctic Monkeys and Speech Debelle. The Mercury Music Prize is eligible to be won by any British artist who released an album between 12 July 2011 and 10 September 2012.

The full list of Mercury nomiated albums, artists and odds can be seen below:

Plan B – iLL Manors – 4/1
Richard Hawley – Standing At Sky’s Edge – 4/1
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave – 5/1
Django Django – Django Django – 5/1
Jessie Ware – Devotion – 7/1
The Maccabees – Given To The Wild – 7/1
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again – 8/1
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom – 8/1
Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough? – 8/1
Field Music – Plumb – 10/1
Roller Trio – Roller Trio – 10/1
Sam Lee – Ground Of Its Own – 10/1