The nominees as well as everyone who's anyone in the music business were gathered at London's swanky Grosvenor House this evening with the Mercury Music prize winner announced shortly after 10.15(BST).
As previous years have dictated, all of the nominated acts were invited to play prior to the award ceremony with Paul Weller kicking-off performances with his title track from latest album 'Wake Up The Nation'. Other acts followed including Wild Beasts with 'Hooting And Howling' before Laura Marling commented on her performance of 'I Speak Because I Can', saying that she has had an “amazing year”. Foals also gave a shortened rendition of 'Spanish Sahara'.
Out of all of the nominations, which included Biffy Clyro, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dizzee Rascal, Kit Downes Trio, Foals, I Am Kloot, Laura Marling, Mumford And Sons, Paul Weller, Villagers and Wild Beasts, the evening concluded with The xx walking away as 2010's Mercury Music Prize winners.
The London band, who were near speechless upon receiving the prize, formed in 2005 and have been described as one of the most intelligent and fascinating bands in music today. Releasing their debut album in August 2009, the group have been fighting out a tough battle with fellow Mercury favourite Paul Weller in the recent polls of who was favourite to win.
As they received their £20,000 prize and gave their acceptance speech, The xx singer Oliver Sim said that the award felt like "a weird moment of clarity” and went on to say, "we’ve had the most incredible year and it’s just felt like every day we’ve woken up to something incredible that we just weren’t expecting. "It’s felt a bit like a haze."
Recent winners of the Mercury Prize have included Elbow, Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys.
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