Kaiser Chiefs & Coldplay for Mercury award

Coldplay, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs lead the list of nominees for the UK's prestigious Mercury Music Prize, which has been given out since 1992 to recognize the best in British music. Singer Alex Kapranos of last year's winners, Franz Ferdinand, told us how the prize is awarded and why it's important on the UK music scene:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "The Mercury Music Prize is voted for by a panel of judges who are taken from different parts of the music industry. The equivalent in the US would be the Shortlist Prize or something like that. For the bands that tend to win it, you tend to get a lot of attention in the press and in the public eye, and it's cool because it brings attention to a lot of new music."

The winner is selected from a shortlist of 12 finalists representing the best releases by a wide range of UK artists, as determined by a panel of music industry experts, journalists and musicians.

The winning artist receives a cash award of 20,000 British pounds.

The Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party both made the final list with their debut albums, Employment and Silent Alarm respectively, while Coldplay are represented by their third effort, X&Y.

The winner of the Mercury Music Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London on September 6, 2005.
Submit the above story to:

Del.icio.us   Digg   reddit   StumbleUpon   Facebook