Sam Fender has won the 2025 Mercury Prize for his third album, People Watching, a steely-eyed dissection of working-class life in the north of England.
The singer looked stunned when his name was announced. “I didn’t think that was going to happen at all,” he told the BBC as he came off stage. “I’ve spent the last 10 minutes crying.”
Fender beat the likes of Pulp and Wolf Alice – both former winners of the £25,000 prize for the best British or Irish album of the year – 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 along to every word as he performed the title track of his prize-winning album.