Showbiz I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice . Female acts dominate this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist with Beth Gibbons nominated almost 30 years after winning it with Portishead.
The singer, who won in 1995 with the trip-hop band’s debut Dummy, is nominated this year for Lives Outgrown – her first solo studio album of original songs. The record was written over a decade and tackles issues of aging and loss. It was a huge critical and commercial hit on its release with one critic dubbing it “a dispatch from the darker moments of middle age” and another saying it was “a record to fall in love with”.
A win would bring her level with PJ Harvey – the only act to win it twice. Nominated alongside Gibbons are Charli xcx for Brat, Streatham-born Cat Burns for Early Twenties, Corinne Bailey Rae for Black Rainbows and producer and DJ Nia Archives for Silence Is Loud. The shortlist also features Scottish DJ and producer Barry Can't Swim for When Will We Land?, east London rapper Berwyn for his debut album Who Am I, Irish singer CMAT for Crazymad, for Me and corto.
alto for Bad with Names. Also nominated are English Teacher with This Could Be Texas and east London grime scene veteran Ghetts with On Purpose, with Purpose as well as the all-female rock band The LastDinner Party who met while studying at Kings College London and are shortlisted for their debut Prelude to Ecstasy. Eight out of the 12 acts .