Scotland’s national music prize, the SAY Award is now open for nominations.
Founded in 2012, the award celebrates outstanding Scottish music of any genre and has been won by the likes of Young Fathers, Sacred Paws and Anna Meredith. With a first prize of £20,000 and 9 £1,000 runner-up prizes, it is also one of the most lucrative music prizes in the UK.
Anyone can nominate an album for this year’s award. To be eligible, albums must have been released between 1 Apr 2018 and 31 Mar 2019 and must be by a Scottish artist. That means any artist born in Scotland (or 50% core members born in Scotland in the case of bands) or anyone who has made their creative base here for at least the past three years. Submissions close at midnight on Fri 31 May 2019.
Once all eligible albums have been collated, 100 impartial “Nominators”, chosen from sectors including journalism, broadcast and radio, music retail and venues, will consider the titles and rank their five favourites in order of preference. The 20 highest scoring albums will be then be whittled down to a shortlist of 10, one of which will be decided by online public vote.
“For me, winning The SAY Award gave us the chance to tour in the States which is something I’ve always wanted to do but wouldn’t have be able to do to otherwise,” said Anna Meredith of her victory in 2016. “The SAY Award looks for quality, excitement and innovation across genres and across different stages, it’s not just looking for the most popular or the biggest fan club or what might make the best news story.”
This year the award ceremony will also relocate to the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, from its previous home at Paisley Town Hall. The ceremony will take place on Fri 6 Sep.
Nominations can be made via the SAY Award website.
Follow this year’s SAY Award on Twitter @SAYaward, Instagram @sayaward and Facebook @SAYaward