Artist News Awards

David Bowie the bookies’ favourite to win the Mercury Prize

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 5 August 2016

So, as the Mercury Prize shortlist was unleashed yesterday, the bookies named David Bowie the favourite to take the album of the year award.

Though the bookies were certain that Remain was going to win in the European Referendum, and look how that turned out. The Mercury panel will probably now vote to leave the world of music altogether and give the prize to a garden shed in Basingstoke instead. Which, frankly, would be a much more interesting outcome.

Presumably those putting their pounds on Bowie to win are hoping that the Mercury judging panel won’t be able to resist the temptation to use their prize to pay tribute to one of the true greats of British music. And it was a pretty damn decent final album, of course.

But – even though the Leave-voting British public have been given some token-gesture input this year – the Mercury judging panel has a habit of shunning the obvious, except when shunning the obvious would be the obvious thing to do. So who knows? I think things are still looking pretty good for that shed.

Anyway, here are the odds Ladbrokes were offering yesterday…

David Bowie – Blackstar – 2/1
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool – 5/1
Anohni – Hopelessness – 5/1
Skepta – Konnichiwa – 8/1
Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate – 10/1
The 1975 – I Like It … -12/1
Kano – Made In The Manor – 12/1
Laura Mvula – The Dreaming Room – 16/1
Savages – Adore Life – 16/1
Bat For Lashes – The Bride – 16/1
The Comet Is Coming – Channel The Spirits – 25/1
Jamie Woon – Making Time – 25/1