The shortlist for the Welsh Music Prize 2024 is announced with 15 artists in the running for the prestigious award. The artists, unveiled by Adam Walton on his show on BBC Radio Wales on Saturday night, are competing for £10,000 prize money.
Artists up for the award, which celebrates the best new Welsh albums from the past 12 months, include established acts Gruff Rhys, who is nominated for his 2024 album Sadness Sets Me Free. Gruff won the first Welsh Music Prize in 2011 for his album Hotel Shampoo, and long-running Newport metal band, Skindred, shortlisted for current album Smile, which reached number two in the UK charts.
Debut albums make the list as well, including Welsh-Jamaican reggae musician Aleighcia Scott for her album Windrush Baby; Pontypridd alt-rock trio CHROMA – who headlined God is in The TV’s 20th anniversary party last year at The Gate in Cardiff – for Ask for Angela; DJ and producer Elkka’s electronic dance album Prism of Pleasure; Swansea-based pop-folk storyteller Angharad with Motherland and gothic new-wave Cardiff band Slate with Deathless.
Returning to the shortlist are 2013 WMP winner Georgia Ruth with her fourth album of beguiling folk, Cool Head; the joyful, idiosyncratic bilingual pop and Northern Soul of Dosbarth Nos from Ynys; Pen Llŷn’s Pys Melyn with the wistful and beautifully harmonised psych of Bolmynydd‘; art-pop greats HMS Morris with Dollar Lizard Money Zombie; Newport rapper and producer, Lemfreck with his album Blood, Sweat & Fears; Aberystwyth four-piece Mellt with the Welsh language post-punk of Dim Dwywaith;; psych rockers Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard with Skinwalker; ; and the sixth album from folk stalwarts Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog with Mynd â’r tŷ am dro.
Full 2024 shortlist in alphabetical order:
Aleighcia Scott – Windrush Baby
Angharad – Motherland GIITTV interview
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – Skinwalker GIITTV album review
CHROMA – Ask for Angela GIITTV coverage
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog – Mynd â’r tŷ am dro
Elkka – Prism of Pleasure – Neutron Prize here
Georgia Ruth – Cool Head GIITTV interview
Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free GIITTV interview
HMS Morris – Dollar Lizard Money Zombie GIITTV interview
L E M F R E C K – BLOOD SWEAT & FEARS GIITTV interview
Mellt – Dim Dwywaith
Pys Melyn – Bolmynydd
Skindred – Smile
Slate – Deathless GIITTV coverage
Ynys – Dosbarth Nos GIITTV interview
Previous winners also include Gwenno, Adwaith, Kelly Lee Owens, Meilyr Jones, Deyah and Boy Azooga.
Established by BBC radio presenter Huw Stephens, the Welsh Music Prize is now an annual award. Supported by Creative Wales, PRS for Music, PPL and Help Musicians, the prize event ceremony is also part of the Cardiff Music City Festival this autumn and marks the opening of Llais festival, taking place from 8-13 October.
This year’s Triskel award which supports new artists, and the Welsh Inspiration award will be announced on 11 September.
Welsh Music Prize co-founder, Huw Stephens said: “This year’s Welsh Music Prize shortlist is a brilliant collection of albums. Artists from Wales continue to create beautiful, innovative, remarkable work which takes their music around the world. We are very grateful to Creative Wales for the support of this prize, which every music fan in Wales can be proud of.”
This year’s judges for the Welsh Music Prize are:
Caroline Cullen- Series Producer- Later…with Jools Holland / BBC Studios
CassKid – Broadcaster, DJ and music producer
Jude Rogers – Writer arts/culture for Guardian and Observer, Author
Molly Palmer – DJ / Radio Wales Presenter
Owain Elidir Williams – Founder of independent music website, Klust
Sofia Ilyas – Beatport/FLOAT
Tom Morgan – NME/Clash
The winner of the Welsh Music Prize 2024 will be announced at a ceremony hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri, with live performances by a selection of shortlisted artists at the Wales Millennium Centre on Tuesday 8 October.
Gruff Rhys in Liverpool, December 2023 photography credit: Kevin Barrett
