Self Esteem on challenging society with her Mercury Prize shortlisted album

Self Esteem has said she is “asking questions that pop music doesn’t get to” with her Mercury shortlisted album Prioritise Pleasure.

The 36-year-old musician, real name Rebecca Lucy Taylor, is among one of the 12 acts in the running for the prestigious award alongside Harry Styles, Sam Fender and Little Simz.

The event, which recognises the best British album of the year, was previously postponed due to the Queen’s death and is being held at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, west London on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on the red carpet of the 2022 awards ceremony Taylor told the PA news agency her album is “a timestamp of where I’m at” and was made “on my own terms”.

She said: “My whole life has been a bit shit sometimes and then I realised that a lot of it is because of systemic misogyny.

“Society did that to us…if you’re a woman or in any way other then life is not easy to ride.

“All I’m saying in the album is ‘is that fair?’ and that’s what I’ll continue to do.

“I’m just asking questions that pop music doesn’t get to do because you have to play the game if you want to succeed.

“But now it’s on my own terms, it’s a real Hollywood, underdog ending – it’s amazing.”

The musician wore a 97% badge on her lapel, representing the number of UK woman who have experienced sexual assault or harassment.

She is one of the 10 acts who are nominated for the first time.

Kojey Radical, who is also among the shortlist for his album Reason To Smile, told PA that he had drawn inspiration for the record from the Black Lives Matter movement during the global pandemic.

He said: “The main single was written about that time, manly at the time of writing it it was struggling with not knowing what to say.

“That emotion carries so much weight that the song essentially wrote itself. It’s always the one you don’t expect to go far…I didn’t expect it to have so much commercial value.

“But it just shows you that you’ve always got to write from an honest place.”

On the collaborations on the album he continued: “I’m trying to go from five a side to the Premier League, I need 11 players for that, and I’ve got the sturdiest players I could find, worldwide and internationally. We were signing players from California, Los Angeles…and I’m the gaffer, keeping the vibe going.”

On the direction that his next album would take, he added: “We are at the very beginning of what is going on right now, as much as it feels like we’ve been going through it for a very long time.

“There is a big shift happening at the moment, culturally, politically, mentally and I think as artist we are in a fortunate position to able to see that and now portray that to people they can digest and understand and use as a healing method. So the next album will probably be about some deep healing, because we need that right now.”

Joy Crookes told PA she feels “blushy” to be shortlisted for her debut album Skin, and to be touring with US megastar Lizzo next year.

While Rock-duo Nova Twins reminisced about past “midnight chats” they had had about attending red-carpet ceremonies as they arrived at the award show.

Childhood friends Amy Love and Georgia South, who are shortlisted for their album Supernova, said they had worked hard for the opportunity but just wanted to be “appreciative” of the moment.

Yard Act are also shortlisted for their debut studio album The Overload which was influenced by the uncertainty of the world during the pandemic.

James Smith, lead singer of the Leeds-based rock group, told PA: “It was written in the pandemic, so we were watching a lot of the news and that gets into your head.

“I think also because I wasn’t going out of the house and seeing people, I was reflecting on my youth quite a lot and so I was writing about my own childhood and where I came from, and I think that combined with the modern news, it was kind of infiltrating my head is what brought us to this album.

“I think we’ll always try, even if we don’t write explicitly about politics in the near future, I think we’ll always try and lead by example.

“We will always talk about what we believe in maybe if it’s not the centre of the record next time around it will certainly always be a part of us because I believe in people, power to the people.”

Arriving at the red carpet, Welsh musician Gwenno, whose album titled Tresor means treasure in Cornish and all but one of the songs on Gwenno’s album are sung in Cornish which was her first language while growing up.

The singer-songwriter, 41, said: “I love the sound of other languages and music. I think that celebrating our differences makes us realise how similar we are.

“I think language is an echo of the past and I think it tells you a lot about the place and the landscape and it’s something to be cherished.

“I’ve got to know Cornwall and the people in Cornwall through the language.

“So it’s just all there to be celebrated.

“It’s a bonding thing.”

Scottish musician Fergus McCreadie is also shortlisted for his album Forest Floor and feels this recognition is for “anyone who is a jazz player”.

“I think the Mercury Prize can do a really special thing, they draw attention to certain genres of music and artists that wouldn’t normally have that mainstream thing,” he told PA.

“I don’t think this shortlist nomination is really for me, it’s for anyone who is a jazz player.

“Someone could listen to my music and thing ‘oh I actually like jazz’ and go and listen to jazz, I think that would be the biggest win.”

Also shortlisted are Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler for For All Our Days That Tear The Heart and Wet Leg for their self-titled debut album.

To mark the BBC’s 100th birthday, broadcast partner BBC Music is delivering live television and radio coverage of the event.

Last year, the Mercury Prize was won by Arlo Parks for her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams.