Women dominate Mercury shortlist as Portishead star aims for the double
Evening Standard|July 25, 2024
FEMALE acts dominate this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist — with Beth Gibbons nominated almost 30 years after winning it with Portishead.
Robert Dex
Women dominate Mercury shortlist as Portishead star aims for the double

The singer, who won in 1995 with the trip-hop band’s debut Dummy, is now nominated for Lives Outgrown, her first solo studio album of original songs. The record was written over a decade and tackles the issues of aging and loss. It was a critical and commercial hit on its release with one critic dubbing it “a dispatch from the darker moments of middle age” and another saying it was “a record to fall in love with”.

A win would bring her level with PJ Harvey — the only act to win it twice.

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