Sam Fender wins the 2025 Mercury Prize for his third album, People Watching

Sam Fender has received the 2025 Mercury Prize for his third album, People Watching, a steely-eyed dissection of working-class life within the north of England.

The singer regarded shocked when his title was introduced. “I didn’t think that was going to happen at all,” he informed the BBC as he got here off stage. “I’ve spent the last 10 minutes crying.”

Fender beat the likes of Pulp and Wolf Alice – each former winners of the £25,000 prize for one of the best British or Irish album of the yr – at a star-studded ceremony in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.

His victory was met with a deafening cheer from the hometown crowd; who had earlier sung alongside to each phrase as he carried out the title monitor of his prize-winning album.

The 31-year-old isn’t any stranger to the Mercury Prize – having beforehand obtained a nomination for his second report, Seventeen Going Under, in 2022.

People Watching was launched in February and instantly topped the charts, promoting 107,000 copies – making it the fastest-selling album by a British artist since Harry Styles’ Harry’s House in 2022.

Mercury Prize judges known as the report “melody-rich and expansive, marrying heartland rock with the realities of everyday life and the importance of community.”

“It felt like a classic,” added Radio 1’s Sian Eleri, asserting the prize.

Taking to the stage, Fender devoted the award to his late mentor, Annie Orwin, who he previously described as “a surrogate mother in a lot of ways”.

“I was honoured and lucky enough to be with her in the last week of her life, and the title track was about her and about grief,” he informed the BBC.

“Then the rest of the album is very much local stories, little pictures of Shields, and the people I’ve grown up with.

“So, very very like each different album I’ve carried out, however I believe we bought it proper this time.”

The North Shields native has become a hero in Newcastle, where he played three sold-out stadium shows at St James’ Park this summer, attracting some 150,000 fans.

Winning the Mercury Prize on residence soil was as poetic because it was well-deserved. As Elton John said a couple of years ago: “He’s a British rock ‘n’ roll artist who’s one of the best rock ‘n’ roll artist there’s.”

But Fender had downplayed his status as the voice of a generation, or even his hometown.

“People bandy about these phrases on a regular basis, and it is ridiculous,” he told the LA Times in May.

“Saying that any individual’s the voice of a era – I’m not, actually. I’m an fool. I’m simply writing about my experiences and the experiences of individuals I do know, and other people connect such weight to it.”

Speaking backstage, Fender’s bandmates joked that he’d celebrate his £25,000 prize with “a pyjama celebration” at his house.

But the musician said he’d celebrate in a more traditional manner.

“I’m gonna have a beer.”

In the run-up to the ceremony, Irish singer CMAT had been the bookmakers’ favourite for her third album, Euro-Country.

A sharp and witty collection of songs that tackle everything from body shaming to the collapse of Ireland’s economy in 2008, it reached number two in the album charts this August, bolstered by a summer of joyous festival perfomances.

Speaking to the BBC before the Mercury Prize she joked that she’d “flip over a desk” if she lost.

Other nominees included folk singer Martin Carthy, and pop star PinkPantheress – whose 20-minute mixtape Fancy That was the shortest ever entrant for the Mercury Prize.

Established in 1992, the Mercury Prize was envisaged as an antidote to the commercially-focused Brit Awards, recognising albums that moved music forwards, without any recourse to fashion or trends.

Of the last 34 winners, 20 have been debuts – from artists including Arctic Monkeys, Suede and Franz Ferdinand.

Many people have mistakenly assumed it is a prize for first albums – but this year’s shortlist included only two: Jacob Alon’s delicate and beautiful In Limerence, and Joe Webb’s Hamstrings and Hurricanes, a jazz album partially influenced by Oasis.

This year saw the ceremony move from London to Newcastle, as part of a wider music industry initiative towards decentralisation.

“Talent is in all places however alternative is not,” said Jo Twist, says chief executive of the BPI, which organises the awards.

“So it is solely proper that we convey these giant scale reveals (exterior London) to indicate there are alternatives inside the music business with out having to maneuver metropolis.”

Fender noted the change, saying Newcastle had “at all times been in an remoted bubble” from the music industry.

“So for it to be recognised is absolutely vital. Hopefully it may be the start of many different great issues.”

Sam Fender’s an unusual proposition. He’s a festival headliner with punch-the-sky choruses whose lyrics are overtly political.

On this, his third album, he picks at the scabs of northern working-class life, and rails against a system that leaves families mired in bureaucratic neglect.

Death and loss loom large. The title track was inspired by visiting his mentor and “surrogate mom” Annie Orwin in a palliative care home – and he paints a bleak picture of a “faciilty fallin’ to bits / understaffed and overruled by callous palms“.

The wistful Crumbling Empire draws parallels between the post-industrial decline of Detroit and Fender’s hometown of North Shields, while Rein Me In finds him struggling to shake the ghosts of a failed relationship.

Fender said his ambition for People Watching was to write “11 songs about unusual folks”, however this vexed, anxious album finally ends up being one thing extra substantial – a tribute to human spirit in a time of deprivation and indifference.