Mercury Prize 2024 winner: English Teacher's This Could Be Texas scoops Album of the Year

Leeds four-piece English Teacher take the £25,000 prize for their debut This Could Be Texas
English Teacher This Could Be Texas

Leeds band English Teacher have won the 2024 Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas.

The group, comprising lead vocalist Lily Fontaine, guitarist Lewis Whiting, drummer Douglas Frost, and bassist Nicholas Eden, beat off stiff competition from the likes of Charli xcx's BRAT, Barry Can't Swim's When Will We Land? and Ghetts' On Purpose, With Purpose to take this year's £25,000 prize.

English Teacher This Could Be Texas Mercury Prize

MORE: Every Mercury Prize winner ever

Accepting the prize at London's iconic Abbey Road Studios, vocalist Lily Fontaine thanked her mum, who also designed the LP's artwork, and said the band owed their career to the support they'd received from local Leeds venues such as Brudenell Social Club and Hyde Park Book Club.

"If you look back over music from this country, Yorkshire in particular has thrown out some of our most prolific songwriters.

"There's real support for musicians in Leeds at the moment.

"Venues are willing to take on new artists and I think that's integral to the health of the scene."

Judges praised This Could Be Texas's "winning lyrical mix of surrealism and social observation," recognising its "subtle way of wearing its musical innovations lightly."

They continued: "This Could Be Texas reveals new depths on every listen - the mark of a future classic."

The record peaked at Number 8 on the Official Albums Chart on its release in April, also debuting at Number 2 on the Official Vinyl Albums Chart and Official Record Store Charts that same month.

Mercury Prize 2024 shortlist: the full list of albums

  • Barry Can't Swim - When Will We Land?

  • BERWYN - Who Am I

  • Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

  • Cat Burns - early twenties

  • Charli xcx - BRAT

  • CMAT - Crazymad, for Me

  • Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows

  • corto.alto - Bad with Names

  • English Teacher - This Could Be Texas - WINNER

  • Ghetts - On Purpose, With Purpose

  • Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud

  • The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

 Name English Teacher This Could Be Texas Mercury Prize

Every Mercury Prize winner ever

1992: Primal Scream - Screamadelica

1993: Suede - Suede

1994: M People - Elegant Slumming

1995: Portishead - Dummy

1996: Pulp - Different Class

1997: Roni Size & Reprazent - New Forms

1998: Gomez - Bring It On

1999: Talvin Singh - OK

2000: Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast

2001: PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

2002: Ms Dynamite - A Little Deeper

2003: Dizzee Rascal - Boy in da Corner

2004: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

2005: Anthony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

2006: Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

2007: Klaxons - Myths of a Near Future

2008: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

2009: Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy

2010: The xx - xx

2011: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

2012: alt-J - An Awesome Wave

2013: James Blake - Overgrown

2014: Young Fathers - Dead

2015: Benjamin Clementine - At Least For Now

2016: Skepta - Konnichiwa

2017: Sampha - Process

2018: Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life

2019: Dave - Psychodrama

2020: Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka

2021: Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

2022: Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

2023: Ezra Collective - Where I'm Meant To Be

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itsnoodleszn_

1

that is AMAZING for english teacher. the album’s one of my many favourites of the year.