Raye won the 2026 Mercury Prize on 22 October 2026 for This Music May Contain Hope, and the prize's previous shortlists page lists Raye on the 2023 shortlist for My 21st Century Blues, as BBC News confirms the win.
The market resolves on the winner announced at the ceremony on 22 October 2026 and published on mercuryprize.com that evening; YES if that artist appears on the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 shortlist on the prize's previous shortlists page. For a collaborative or collective credit, the named act on the shortlist is what is compared. If that source has not published in time, BBC News and the Guardian reports of the winner settle it.
Four of the last eight winners had been on the list before. We checked each winner from 2018 to 2025 in the BBC's report of the ceremony, and asked whether the artist had been shortlisted in the five years before. Over the whole history of the prize, the BBC notes that twenty of its 34 winners to 2025 won with a first album.