Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize for her show-stopping second album This Music May Contain Hope. A pop record sprinkled with golden age Hollywood glamour, it beat the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to scoop the £25,000 prize. "I couldn't tell you how grateful I am to be holding this," said Raye, clutching her trophy at Newcastle's Utilita Arena.
"I'm shaking, I'm jet-lagged, I'm tired. It's all blurry." It is the first time a pop album has won the coveted prize - which recognises the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months - since M People's Elegant Slumming in 1994. Speaking to the BBC afterwards, Raye said she'd "poured everything I had" into the record, which features the global hit song Where Is My Husband?
"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 maximalist." Across 17 tracks and 73 minutes, the record tells a cinematic story about a relationship that ends in tears on the rainy streets of Paris, then follows our plucky heroine as she dusts off the debris and emerges stronger and more resilient.
Along the way, it features both of her grandparents, the soul legend Al Green, four separate orchestras and more than 100 musicians. Released in March, the album went straight to the top of the UK charts and won glowing reviews from critics. Rolling Stone magazine praised its "old-school show-tune razzle-dazzle [and] big-band swing frills", while the NME raved that, "Raye's agile voice has never sounded so good, and her pen has never been so strong".
In the BBC's own review, it was described as an "eccentric, kitsch and dramatic" record where Raye "unapologetically goes for broke". Raye comes out swinging on her new album, This Music May Contain Hope But the album almost never happened. Two years ago this week, the singer's car was stolen, along with all of her songwriting notebooks and demos.
Although they were eventually recovered, it delayed work on This Music May Contain Hope by almost a year. Looking back, she was philosophical about the delay. I was very worried, but you know, it all turned out great.
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