Jump to content

Mercury prize


invisible_r

Recommended Posts

Antony and Johnsons win Mercury

Anthony and the Johnsons

Chichester-born Antony Hegarty is now based in New York

Antony and the Johnsons have won this year's Mercury Music Prize for the album I Am A Bird Now.

Led by New York-based singer Anthony Hegarty, they beat acts including Coldplay, favourites Kaiser Chiefs and hip-hop artist MIA.

The £20,000 award is for the best album of the year by a British or Irish act.

It was voted for by a panel of industry experts, journalists and artists, and is said to reward originality and creativity rather than sales success.

'Rich diversity'

"I think they must have made a mistake," Chichester-born Antony Hegarty said as he collected the award.

"I am completely overwhelmed. I think that's insane."

The pianist and torch singer has been compared to Lou Reed. His winning album, I Am A Bird Now, features contributions from Boy George and Reed.

"What's really exciting about this night is just this wonderful biennial that shows the rich diversity of the spectrum of music that's going on at the moment," Hegarty said.

"It's been so wonderful to be here and just meet everyone. I just love so many of the artists performing tonight, I think it's a bit bonkers to just give it to one person."

He performed live at the Mercury award ceremony in London's Grosvenor House Hotel, as did fellow nominees Kaiser Chiefs, KT Tunstall, Seth Lakeman, Bloc Party, Polar Bear, Maximo Park, The Magic Numbers and the Go! Team.

Multi-million selling band Coldplay, nominated for their third album X&Y, could not attend the ceremony as they were on tour in the US.

Previous winners of the Mercury prize include hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, PJ Harvey and last year's victors Franz Ferdinand.

Mercury Music Prize 2005 nominees:

# Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

# Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

# Coldplay - X&Y

# The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

# Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

# Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

# KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope

# The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers

# Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger

# MIA - Arular

# Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers

# Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oh, did you hear more on the radio today? unfortunately, they didn't play on xfm while i was listening

and apparently there is a bit of controversy because the guy was born in the uk but the band is new york based, so the other artists have complained, as it is supposed to be a uk and irish band prize

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They played a song, something about a girl (not the one they won with). It really is not the kind of music/voice I could get into. Vibretto/falsetto kinda sounding...the bits of the first song I heard were alright.

There are alot of people who are very angry about them winning because only the lead singer was born in the UK, so I can understand. Not really fair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

hi all,

my brother just bought this album the other day. as far as i know antony is a transexual. i haven't been able to listen past halfway through the first song yet because it makes me cry my eyes out. it's amazing. i love his voice (the minute and a half i've heard of it) and the music is just so beautifully melancholy. i have to wait until i'm a little more emotionally stable before i'll be able to listen to the rest but i already love it. so brave.

here's his webpage

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is he a transexual? I always thought he was just a drag queen. Either way, I agree with what you say about the music. If you can get past the odd voice you will be completely slapped in the face by the emotion behind it. Every listen of "You Are My Sister" turns me into a little girl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i can't quite figure it out. i had a look around a few webpages but none of them seem to say definitely if he is a transexual or transvestite. my brother said he was a transexual but i actually think he is a transvestite. either way i think he's extremely brave and beautiful!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...