Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize for her sprawling second album This Music May Contain Hope, beating a shortlist that included Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to claim the £25,000 prize at Newcastle's Utilita Arena.
"I couldn't tell you how grateful I am to be holding this," Raye said, clutching the trophy. "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 award, which recognises the best British or Irish album of the previous year, since M People's Elegant Slumming took the prize in 1994.
Seventeen tracks, four orchestras, one stolen car
Released in March and an instant UK number one, the 17-track, 73-minute album tells a cinematic story of a relationship that collapses on the rainy streets of Paris before its narrator rebuilds herself. It features both of Raye's grandparents, soul legend Al Green, four separate orchestras and more than 100 musicians — the kind of indulgence Raye said was deliberate. "I made this album not focusing on commercial success, not focusing on making things cookie-cutter," said the 28-year-old. "Some of these songs are seven minutes. They're indulgent. They're maximalist."
The record nearly didn't happen. Two years ago this week, Raye's car was stolen along with all of her songwriting notebooks and demos; though the car was eventually recovered, the theft delayed the album by almost a year. "I was distraught. I was very worried, but you know, it all turned out great," she said. "Every little slip, every little accident, every little thing, it creates the path that you take. And it's easy to spend time wishing things were the other way. But right now, I certainly do not."
A prize built to reward risk
Rolling Stone praised the album's "old-school show-tune razzle-dazzle" and "big-band swing frills," while NME wrote that "Raye's agile voice has never sounded so good, and her pen has never been so strong." Established in 1992 as a deliberate counterweight to the commercially minded Brit Awards, the Mercury Prize has often rewarded unconventional records over chart-friendly ones; of its 35 previous winners, 20 were debut albums, from acts including Arctic Monkeys, Suede and Franz Ferdinand. This year's shortlist bucked that pattern, including just two debuts: Dove Ellis's Blizzard and Jade's That's Showbiz, Baby.
Raye performed the album's big-band number "I Hate the Way I Look Today" live at the ceremony. Judges praised the album's ambition in a shortlist widely seen as unusually strong this year, with several critics predicting a close contest between Raye and Sir Paul McCartney heading into the night. In the end, panellists said, the sheer scale of Raye's vision — and her willingness to make a pop record that behaved like nothing else nominated — tipped the decision decisively in her favour.
