Amidst a strong crop of British albums, Alt-J won this year’s Mercury Music Prize, beating off competition from Lianne La Havas and The Maccabees, for their debut album An Awesome Wave.
The win came unexpected for the four-piece who formed at Leeds University in 2007 and have had a great year garnering support from XFM and Radio 1 in particular. After thanking their parents and ‘everyone in team Alt-J’, the band told attendees of the glitzy ceremony that ‘we didn’t expect to win because the competition was so high’.
However, the band had been hotly tipped to win the award, being ranked favourites by Paddy Power earlier today. This was the 21st year of the Mercury Prize and is voted for by a panel of music industry executives and experts. Alt-J follow in the footsteps of previous winners, including The xx, Arctic Monkets, Elbow, and last year’s winner, PJ Harvey.
Watch the video for Alt-J’s most recent single ‘Something Good’ below:
