Speech Debelle

Well what do we know about the 2009 winner of the Mercury Prize? The answer. Not very much to be honest. Our first glimpse of her was in the little run up to the mercury prize announcement and we both thought she sounded good though neither thought she would win. She is reminiscent of Lady Sovereign but has a fantastic jazz band behind her. Yes, believe it or not she is what R&B should be! This is R&B before Kanye West decided he wanted as many gold chains as Mr T and a home that rivals the white house. Its a lovely mix of gritty south london lyrics and vocals with the background sound of a New Orleans Jazz Club.

Unfortunately we haven't heard the album yet though if we get a chance then I would love to write a review for here. Lets just wait and see if her popularity rockets like Elbow or if she fades back into obscurity like Antony and the Johnsons.

Mercury Music Prize

Just a few days before the arguably most prestigious award in music is given out for 2008, I thought we should remind you of the nominees. Will Alex Turner get his second award after being nominated three years in a row? Will Radioheads method of releasing their album push them to the top of the pile? Can Burial or Elbow fulfill their prize winning predictions? Who knows. Personally I would like to see Laura Marling win and I know Pris soft spot for Alex Turner will guide her towards The Last Shadow Puppets. But I think we can all agree that it wont be Adele!!!

Adele '19'
British Sea Power 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
Burial 'Untrue'
Elbow 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
Estelle 'Shine'
Laura Marling 'Alas, I Cannot Swim'
Neon Neon 'Stainless Style'
Portico Quartet 'Knee Deep In The North Sea'
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset 'The Bairns'
Radiohead 'In Rainbows'
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss 'Raising Sand'
The Last Shadow Puppets 'The Age Of The Understatement'

The Nationwide Mercury Prize will be shown on at 10pm on Tuesday 9th on BBC2 for all the UK readers. For everyone else I expect it will be shown at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer