Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize for her show-stopping second album This Music May Contain Hope.
A pop record sprinkled with golden age Hollywood glamour, it beat the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Jade to scoop the £25,000 prize.
“I couldn’t tell you how grateful I am to be holding this,” said Raye, clutching her trophy at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena. “I’m shaking, I’m jet-lagged, I’m tired. It’s all blurry.”
It is the first time a pop album has won the coveted prize – which recognises the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months – since M People’s Elegant Slumming in 1994.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards, Raye said she’d “poured everything I had” into the record, which features the global hit song Where Is My Husband?
“I made this album not focusing on commercial [success], not focusing on making things cookie-cutter,” said the 28-year-old.
“Some of these songs are seven minutes. They’re indulgent. They’re maximalist.”
Across 17 tracks and 73 minutes, the record tells a cinematic story about a relationship that ends in tears on the rainy streets of Paris, then follows our plucky heroine as she dusts off the debris and emerges stronger and more resilient.
Along the way, it features both of her grandparents, the soul legend Al Green, four separate orchestras and more than 100 musicians.