Nominees for 2015 Irish ‘Choice Music Prize’ announced

Villagers, SOAK, Girl Band and Jape have made the 10-act shortlist

Former Mercury Prize nominee Villagers is joined by SOAK, Girl Band and Gavin James amongst a ten-act shortlist for Ireland’s ‘Choice Music Prize‘, for albums released in 2015, with Kodaline’s second album ‘Coming Up For Air’ a notable omission.

The Choice Music Prize is an annual event that offers a €10,000 prize to the winner, with previous victors since the prize began in 2005 including The Divine Comedy, Villagers, Jape (twice) and Two Door Cinema Club. Supergroup The Gloaming took home the 2014 prize.

The shortlist – and eventual winner – is picked by a team of twelve Irish media judges, and selected from every qualifying album released in the relevant year. To qualify, an act must have a majority of members born in Ireland (the Republic and the North) or holding Irish passports. There is also a prize for song of the year, with nominees expected to be announced towards the end of January.

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Victor Finn, chief executive of funding organisation IMRO, said of the prize:

“The Choice Prize provides a great opportunity for new Irish writers and performers to showcase their creativity to such a wide audience and winning such an award provides real career impetus both within and outside of Ireland”

NMERich Gilligan

The full shortlist for the prize – which is accompanied by an event taking place at Dublin’s Vicar Street venue on March 3 and will also feature an as yet unannounced line-up of performers – is as follows:

Girl Band – Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade)
HamsandwicH – Stories From The Surface (Route 109A Records)
Gavin James – Bitter Pill (Warner Music Ireland)
Jape – This Chemical Sea (Faction Records)
Le Galaxie – Le Club (Universal Music Ireland)
Colm Mac Con Iomaire – And Now The Weather (Plateau)
Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys (PIAS)
Soak – Before We Forgot How To Dream (Rough Trade)
Villagers – Darling Arithmetic (Domino)
Young Wonder – Birth (Feel Good Lost)

Tickets for the event, priced at €25.50, are on sale now.

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