Ezra Collective have won this year’s Mercury Prize, with their album Where I’m Meant To Be.
The instrumental jazz group beat acts including Raye, Jessie Ware and J Hus to claim the prestigious award and the £25,000 prize at a star-studded ceremony held at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.
Nine of the 12 nominated acts played on stage ahead of the announcement, while live performance films were shown on screen to celebrate Arctic Monkeys and Fred Again, who were both unable to attend due to tour shows, and J Hus was unable to get to the event due to illness.
Collecting their award, bandleader Femi Koleoso thanked God, their families and team, and hailed their youth club beginnings, before performing once more.
The group is made up of Koleoso, bassist TJ Koleoso, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, saxophonist James Mollison and trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi.
They released their debut album You Can’t Steal My Joy in 2019, dropping Where I’m Meant to Be in November 2022.
Mercury Prize 2023 – the 12 shortlisted albums
Arctic Monkeys – The Car
Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant to Be
Fred Again – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)
J Hus – Beautiful And Brutal Yard
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B
Lankum – False Lankum
Loyle Carner – Hugo
Olivia Dean – Messy
Raye – My 21st Century Blues
Shygirl – Nymph
Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy
Speaking before the ceremony to Sky News, Koleoso said it meant a lot for their style of music to be introduced to a bigger stage.
“You can’t help but type your name into Twitter [now known as X] and see what people are saying, and there’s been a bunch of people saying things along the lines of, ‘never heard of a jazz band or this jazz band before, never listened to a jazz album before, but I can’t believe it, I actually liked it’, and that’s exciting.
“I think that’s what happens when you’re in a long list of superstars that everyone in the country knows all the way to someone that they’ve never heard of, and they’ve never even listened to instrumental music, and they gave it a go.”
Jessie Ware, who was nominated for the second time, told Sky News she was having a “good time” with her music.
“I found my place in music – maybe it’s from raving when I was younger and that feeling of community on the dance floor, and I’ve found the most beautiful community in my fans and, I’m having a good time,” she said.
“I think also being honest and being yourself is kind of the best. It sounds really naff, but it’s great, it’s worked alright for me.”
Raye, who recently left her label in order to release her first album, told Sky News: “Being here today, it just takes me back to two years ago or whatever where I was so disappointed in myself as an artist – I was the opposite of what I feel like I am now… I didn’t ever think I would get the chance to almost start again or go again.”
Judges this year included former nominees Anna Calvi and Hannah Peel, as well as other industry names such as musician Jamie Cullum, broadcaster and DJ MistaJam, and music critic Will Hodgkinson.
First won by Primal Scream’s Screamadelica in 1992, the Mercury Prize celebrates music by British and Irish acts and recognises the 12 best albums of the year, introducing records from a range of music genres to a wider audience.
The awards are known for celebrating different artists throughout all stages of their careers, from newcomers to veterans, and for potentially putting artists who are not huge names on the map.
Rapper Little Simz picked up the prize for her fourth album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert last year, while other recent winners include Arlo Parks, Michael Kiwanuka, Dave and Wolf Alice.
An antiques expert from the TV show Bargain Hunt has been charged by police following an investigation into terrorist financing.
Oghenochuko ‘Ochuko’ Ojiri, 53, is accused of eight counts of “failing to make a disclosure during the course of business within the regulated sector”, the Met Police said.
The force said he was the first person to be charged with that specific offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Mr Ojiri, from west London, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
It comes “following an investigation into terrorist financing” and relates to the period from October 2020 to December 2021, a police spokesperson said.
They added that the probe had been carried out in partnership with Treasury officials, HMRC and the Met’s Arts & Antiques Unit.
Mr Ojiri, who police described as an “art dealer”, has been on Bargain Hunt since 2019.
He has also appeared on the BBC‘s Antiques Road Trip programme.
In a statement, the BBC said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
A man has been charged after allegedly harassing Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing his car through the front gate of her home, prosecutors have said.
Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, of New Albany, Mississippi, is accused of having repeatedly sent the Friends star unwanted voicemail, email and social media messages since 2023.
The 48-year-old is then alleged to have crashed his grey Chrysler PT Cruiser through the front gate of Aniston’s home in the wealthy Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles early on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said the collision caused major damage.
Police have said Aniston was at home at the time.
A security guard stopped Carwyle on her driveway before police arrived and arrested him.
There were no reports of anyone being injured.
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Carwyle has been charged with felony stalking and vandalism, prosecutors said on Thursday.
He also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm, Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan Hochman said.
Carwyle, who has been held in jail since his arrest on Monday, is set to appear in court on Thursday.
His bail has been set at $150,000 dollars (£112,742).
He is facing up to three years in prison if he is convicted as charged.
“My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting those who stalk and terrorise others, ensuring they are held accountable,” Mr Hochman said in a statement.
Aniston bought her mid-century mansion in Bel Air on a 3.4-acre site for about 21 million dollars (£15.78m) in 2012, according to reporting by Architectural Digest.
She became one of the biggest stars on television in her 10 years on NBC’s Friends.
Aniston won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more.
She has appeared in several Hollywood films and currently stars in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.
Producer Giles Martin has said plans to allow AI firms to use artists’ work without permission, unless creators opt out, is like criminals being given free rein to burgle houses unless they are specifically told not to.
Martin, who is the son of Beatles producer George Martin and worked with Sir Paul McCartney on the Get Back documentary series and the 2023 Beatles track Now And Then, spoke to Sky News at a UK Music protest at Westminster coinciding with a parliamentary debate on the issue.
Under the plans, an exemption to copyright would be created for training artificial intelligence (AI), so tech firms would not need a licence to use copyrighted material – rather, creators would need to opt out to prevent their work from being used.
Creatives say if anything it should be opt-in rather than out, and are calling on the government to scrap the proposals and stop AI developers “stealing” their work “without payment or permission”.
Image: Giles Martin at the 2025 Grammy Awards. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
“If you create something unique it should be unique to you,” says Martin. “It shouldn’t be able to be harvested and then used by other people. Or if it is, it should be with your permission… it shouldn’t be up to governments or big tech.”
Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell are among the celebrities who have backed a campaign opposing the proposals, and Sir Paul has also spoken out against them.
“This is about young artists,” says Martin. “If a young Paul McCartney at the age of 20 or 22 wrote Yesterday, now… big tech would almost be able to harvest that song and use it for their own means. It doesn’t make any sense, this ruling of opting out – where essentially it’s like saying, ‘you can burgle my house unless I ask you not to’.”
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‘I’m not anti-AI – it’s a question of permission’
The Beatles’ track Now And Then was written and recorded by John Lennon in New York in the late 1970s, and AI was used to extract his vocals for the 2023 release. The Get Back documentary also used audio restoration technology, allowing music and vocals to be isolated.
Image: AI was used to release The Beatles’ track Now And Then in 2023. Pic: Apple Corps Ltd
“I’m not anti [AI], I’m not saying we should go back to writing on scribes,” Martin said. “But I do think that it’s a question of artist’s permission.”
Using AI to “excavate” Lennon’s voice was with the permission of the late singer’s estate, he said, and is “different from me getting a 3D printer to make a John Lennon”.
He added: “The idea of, for example, whoever your favourite artist is – the future is, you get home from work and they’ll sing you a song, especially designed for you, by that artist, by that voice. And it’ll make you feel better because AI will know how you’re feeling at that time. That’s maybe a reality. Whoever that artist is, they should probably have a say in that voice.”
Crispin Hunt, of 1990s band The Longpigs, who also attended the protest, said “all technology needs some kind of oversight”.
“If you remove the ability for the world to make a living out of creativity, or if you devalue creativity to such an extent that that it becomes a hobby and worthless to do, then humanity in life will be far less rich because it’s art and culture that makes life richer,” he said. “And that’s why the companies want it for free.”
The Data (Use and Access) Bill primarily covers data-sharing agreements, but transparency safeguards were removed at committee stage.
Critics say changes need to be made to ensure that companies training generative AI models disclose whether work by a human creator has been used and protect creatives under existing copyright rules.
In February, more than 1,000 artists and musicians including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Sam Fender and Annie Lennox released a silent album in protest at the proposed changes.
At that time, a government spokesperson said the UK’s current rules were “holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from realising their full potential – and that cannot continue”.
The spokesperson said they were consulting on proposals that better protect the “interests of both AI developers and right holders” and to deliver a solution “which allows both to thrive”.