LONDON (AP) – Harry Styles has secured his first Mercury Prize nomination with his third solo album, competing for the British music award with acts like singer-songwriter Sam Fender and rapper Little Simz.
Styles was shortlisted on Tuesday for his album Harry’s House, which has topped United Kingdom album charts for six weeks – longer than all of the albums he recorded as a member of the boy band One Direction combined.
The 12 albums shortlisted for this year’s Mercury Prize, which recognises the best British or Irish album of the year, include Fender’s Seventeen Going Under and Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.
Actress Jessie Buckley, who recently won an Olivier Award for best actress in a musical for her role as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, also made the list for For All Our Days That Tear The Heart, her album with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
A judging panel that included musicians Jamie Cullum and Anna Calvi narrowed the nominations down for the short list.
The panel said the albums covered “everything from imaginative pop to pioneering rap to Cornish language folk-rock”.
The awards show is set to take place on September 8 in London with live performances from many of the shortlisted acts.
