Question: What is the Mercury Prize?

Hi friends! Check out this site to review the nominees/contenders for best album(s) of the year according to the (British) Barclay Mercury Prize. ****But, 'What is the Mercury Prize?' you may ask... Well, per the 'About Us' portion of the official site (http://www.mercuryprize.com/);The Barclaycard Mercury Prize exists solely to champion music in the UK, mainly through the 'Albums of the Year' competition, which celebrates recorded music of all genres by British or Irish artists. The twelve Albums of the Year are announced each July with the overall winner decided on the night of the Awards Show in September. The music on the album is the only thing taken into account.**** Previous years winners include; (2000) Badly Drawn Boy-The Hour of Bewilderbeast. (2001) PJ Harvey-Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. (2002) Ms. Dynamite-A Little Deeper. (2003) Dizzee Rascal-Boy in da Corner. (2004) Franz Ferdinand-Franz Ferdinand. (2005) Antony and the Johnsons-I Am a Bird Now. (2006) Arctic Monkeys-Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. (2007) Klaxons-Myths of the Near Future. (2008) Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid. (2009) Speech Debelle-Speech Therapy. _2010 Nominees_ Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea Dizzee Rascal – Tongue n' Cheek Kit Downes Trio – Golden Foals – Total Life Forever I Am Kloot – Sky at Night Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation Villagers – Becoming a Jackal Wild Beasts – Two Dancers The xx – xx