29 h. ago Sam Fender releases new song with Elton John, one day after Mercury prize win

John plays twinkling piano part in new song Talk to You, and says he ‘truly loves’ the Geordie singer-songwriterSam Fender has released a new song with Elton John entitled Talk to You, the day after winning the 2025 Mercury prize for his album People Watching.It features a twinkling piano line laid out by John, amid Fender’s full-bodied guitar-led songwriting. Fender sings on the chorus “Just wanna talk to you / Wanna talk with my best friend / Wanna let go of everything that I carry”, and has said the song is about: “the end of a long relationship – about the regret, the mistakes and the lessons that come with it. It’s that feeling of losing your best friend, and coming to terms with that. I was playing around with the riff and thought, ‘What I need is a really good pianist’, and then, ‘Hmmm, I wonder who I can call?’ And of course, who better than Elton John?” Continue reading...

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30 h. ago Who won the Mercury Prize 2025? Sam Fender wins top music prize for album People Watching

Sam Fender beat out the likes of Pulp, CMAT, Fontaines D.C., Jacob Alon and more to win the 2025 Mercury Prize.

Culture

30 h. ago Sam Fender’s six best songs, ranked: from The Borders to Will We Talk?

With news that the Geordie artist has won the Mercury Prize, we rank his best songs

Politics

31 h. ago Sam Fender reveals how he plans to celebrate Mercury Prize 2025 win

Sam Fender has won the Mercury Prize 2025 for his third album, People Watching on Thursday (16 October).

Politics

33 h. ago Sam Fender dedicates Mercury Prize 2025 to 'mentor' as singer

Local lad Fender beat competition from Britpop band Pulp, post-punks Fontaines DC and Irish singer CMAT

Politics

35 h. ago Sam Fender didn’t need his Mercury prize win – but he earned it with his incisive social realism

They could have given the award to an album that wasn’t already a huge hit – but Fender’s blend of kitchen-sink drama and stadium choruses is expertly done‘You can expect all the usual excitement,” offered host Lauren Laverne at the start of this year’s Mercury prize ceremony. It’s the kind of thing people hosting awards shows are duty-bound to say, but the use of the word “usual” suggested she was diplomatically overlooking last year’s event, which – through no fault of the album that won, English Teacher’s This Could Be Texas – had all the excitement of a wake.The Mercury had lost its corporate sponsorship, necessitating what host Annie Mac called “an intimate celebration of this year’s shortlist”, in the same way that an estate agent might call a flat with the shower next to the cooker “cosy”. Continue reading...

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40 h. ago Sam Fender wins the 2025 Mercury Prize for his album People Watching as shocked star admits he 'did not expect' it

The singer, 31, toom home the presitigous award at the ceremony in Newcastle on Thursday, the first time the ceremony has been held outside London.

Events

41 h. ago Sam Fender wins the 2025 Mercury Prize with third album People Watching

Rock singer-songwriter won the prestigious music award in a homecoming triumph just a stone’s throw from where he was raised, in North Shields

Politics

41 h. ago Sam Fender wins 2025 Mercury prize for his album People Watching

Geordie singer-songwriter’s album reached No 1 on the UK album chart and led to a series of stadium-sized concerts this summerSam 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”. Continue reading...

Politics

45 h. ago Mercury Prize Awards 2025: Who is CMAT? Irish singer tipped to beat Sam Fender

Irish singer-songwriter CMAT emerges as the frontrunner for Best Album at the Mercury Prize Awards in Newcastle tonight with her third record, Euro-Country

Events

9 d. ago Vegas vignettes and killer karaoke staples: Katy Perry’s greatest songs – ranked!

As her Lifetimes tour hits the UK, we pick the high points from one of pop’s most successful vocalists, from angsty ballads to empowerment anthemsThere’s no getting around the fact that Katy Perry’s breakthrough single has not aged well in some ways – the lyrics are like a lads’ mag reader’s idea of female bi-curiosity – but musically it’s an impressively fizzy retooling of the early-70s low glam sound, with crunchy guitars and glitterbeat drums. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving review – British pop’s biggest new star sheds the neo

(Polydor)Already dominating the charts and seemingly inspired by 70s LA, this exceptionally well-made record is full of diaristic detail and sweetly understated vocalsIf you have been paying any attention to the UK singles chart recently, it can hardly have escaped your notice that for the last couple of months it has been utterly dominated by the soundtrack for the Netflix smash KPop Demon Hunters. At the time of writing, Golden, by the cartoon’s chief protagonists Huntr/x, is enjoying its seventh week at No 1: a couple of weeks back, songs from the film would have occupied seven places in the Top 10 had chart rules not limited artists to three appearances in the Top 40.The most striking challenge to its supremacy has been mounted by London singer-songwriter Olivia Dean. Her single Man I Need has been dug in at No 2 for the last month and has been joined in the Top 10 by its predecessor, Nice to Each Other, and her collaboration with Sam Fender, Rein Me In. Further down the Top 20,...

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