Tangents vol. 17 — Victoires de la Musique

Victoires de la Musique is an annual French award ceremony where Victoire accolade is delivered by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry that recognizes the best musical artists of the year. The classical and jazz versions are the Victoires de la musique classique and Victoires du Jazz.[1]

The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a widely viewed televised ceremony. The awards are the French equivalent to American Grammy Awards and British Brit Awards for music, and it is one of the major awards in France, along with Nuits des Molières for stage performances, and the César Award for motion pictures.

The first Victoires de la Musique ceremony was held on 1985, and it was set up to honor musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1985.

nominated for song of the year:

3.5 →3.5

3 →6.5

nominated in best new album

3 →10

nominated in best new album

3 →13

nominated in best male artist

4 →17

nominated in best male artist

4 →21

nominated in best female artist

3 →24

The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers in 1992 as an alternative to the Brit Awards. The prize was originally sponsored by Mercury Communications, a brand owned by Cable & Wireless,[1] from which the prize gets its name. It was later sponsored by Technics[2] (1998 to 2001), Panasonic[1] (2002 and 2003), Nationwide Building Society (2004 to 2008) and Barclaycard (2009–2014).[3][4] Since 2015 the prize has been sponsored by the BBC.[4]

Any album released by a British or Irish artist, or by a band where over 50% of the members are British or Irish, may be submitted for consideration by their record label. The shortlist is chosen by an independent panel of musicians, music presenters, music producers, music journalists, festival organisers and other figures in the music industry in the UK and Ireland.[5][6][7] The prize is open to all types of music, including pop, rock, folk, urban, dance, jazz, blues, electronica and classical. Presentation of the awards usually takes place at an Awards Show in October, after the shortlist is announced at the Album of the Year Launch in September. It is often observed that bands whose albums are shortlisted, or win the prize, experience a large increase in album sales, particularly for lesser known acts.[8] Each shortlisted artist receives a specially commissioned ‘Albums of the Year’ trophy at the Awards Show. Unlike some other music awards, the overall winner of the Mercury Prize also receives a cheque; as of 2014, the value of the prize money is £20,000. The winner also receives an additional winner’s trophy.[9]

The 2015 Mercury Prize ‘Albums of the Year’ in association with BBC Music were announced on Friday 16 October.

The 2015 Albums of the Year are:

Aphex Twin ‘Syro’
Benjamin Clementine ‘At Least For Now’
C Duncan ‘Architect’
Eska ‘Eska’
Florence + The Machine ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’
Gaz Coombes ‘Matador’ 
Ghostpoet ‘Shedding Skin’
Jamie xx ‘In Colour’
Róisín Murphy ‘Hairless Toys’
Slaves ‘Are You Satisfied?’
SOAK ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’ 
Wolf Alice ‘My Love Is Cool’

winner of the mercury prize for 2015

4 →28

6 →34

4 →38

4 →42

4 →46

Ghostpoet ‘Shedding Skin’

4 →50

5 →55

3 →58

5 →63

Wolf Alice ‘My Love Is Cool’

4 →68