Geordie singer-songwriter’s album reached No 1 on the UK album chart and led to a series of stadium-sized concerts this summer
Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury prize, for his chart-topping album People Watching.
Announcing the award, Sian Eleri, BBC radio DJ and one of the judges on the judging panel, said the album was characterised by “cohesion, character and ambition. It felt like a classic album, one that will take pride of place in record collections for years to come”.
Fender, 31, grew up in North Shields, close to where the award ceremony was held this year, in Newcastle. He broke through quickly with his debut album Hypersonic Missiles in 2019, which topped the UK album chart, then consolidated its epic yet poignant sound on second album Seventeen Going Under (2021), and again with People Watching, released in February. It has taken him to even greater commercial heights, producing two Top 10 singles and prompting a series of stadium concerts.
Accepting the award to the sound of Newcastle United chants in the crowd, Fender said: “We did not expect this at all … I want to say thank you, because I never did, to the person the song People Watching is about: Annie Orwin, who’s up there.”
