Raye wins the Mercury Prize with This Music May Contain Hope
The British singer beat Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to the £25,000 award, the first win for a pop album since 1994.
Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize, the award for the best British or Irish album of the past year, for her second album, This Music May Contain Hope. The 28-year-old singer beat a shortlist that included Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to take the £25,000 prize at a ceremony at Newcastle's Utilita Arena on Thursday night.
"I couldn't tell you how grateful I am to be holding this," she said on stage. "I'm shaking, I'm jet-lagged, I'm tired. It's all blurry." It is the first time a pop record has won the prize since M People's Elegant Slumming in 1994.
Spread over 17 tracks and 73 minutes, the album tells a cinematic story of a love affair that ends in tears on the rainy streets of Paris and of the heroine who picks herself up and comes out stronger. It features both of her grandparents, soul legend Al Green, four orchestras and more than 100 musicians, as well as her global hit Where Is My Husband?
Released in March, the album went straight to number one in the UK and won glowing reviews. Raye said she had made it without chasing commercial success, describing some of its seven-minute songs as indulgent and maximalist.