The Comet Is Coming weren’t happy with the introduction of a public vote to the Mercury Prize last night.
For the first time, the shortlist was whittled down to a final six on the evening, one of those last sextet being picked by the public. That honour went to The 1975 and their mouthful of a second album ‘I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’; a choice King Shabaka of The Comet Is Coming believes was pretty much inevitable due to their already well established mainstream appeal.
“I don’t like the public vote,” quotes the NME. “Some of the acts obviously have big capital behind them from major labels, which gives them bigger fanbases to have more people to vote for them.”
“For the little guys like us, who only have 2,000 Facebook followers, we’re obviously going to get less votes. So the vote skews the prize towards the acts who have a good set-up from the beginning.”
After criticism surrounding the award’s diversity last year, the judging panel overlooked the huge bookies favourite – David Bowie‘s ‘Blackstar‘ – in favour of UK grime artist and producer Skepta; a choice which has been widely welcomed.