Mercury Prize £25,000. The winner also receives an additional winner's trophy. To date, PJ Harvey is the only artist to have won the award on more than one occasion (in 2001 and 2011). She was also the first female solo artist to receive the award. Alex Turner has received five nominations as a member of Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets, winning once. Thom Yorke has 6 nominations, 5 with Radiohead and one for "The Eraser", but has never won. The Mercury Prize can have a considerable effect on sales for those artists who are shortlisted. Elbow saw a 700% sales
Mercury Prize has a reputation for being awarded to outside chances rather than the favourites. The 1994 award winner was "Elegant Slumming" by the pop act M People, which some felt was a controversial decision considering the shortlist included popular albums from Britpop figureheads Paul Weller, Blur and Pulp, and electronica band The Prodigy. Other music journalists critical of the awards stated that the 2005 award should not have been given to Antony and the Johnsons for their album "I Am a Bird Now" as, although they are British-born and therefore eligible for the Prize, the band were based in the United