The Scottish Album of the Year Award announce Longlist for 2023
20 outstanding Scottish albums now in the running for £20,000 prize and coveted title.
Article Source: Scottish Album of the Year Award
Last Updated: 14 September 2023 17:02
Scotland’s national music prize, The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award has officially announced the twenty outstanding albums on this year’s Longlist. Now in the running to win the coveted title and £20,000 cash prize, The SAY Award Longlist in alphabetical order is:
• Andrew Wasylyk - Hearing The Water Before Seeing The Falls
• Becky Sikasa - Twelve Wooden Boxes
• Bemz - Nova's Dad
• Brìghde Chaimbeul - Carry Them With Us
• Brooke Combe - Black Is the New Gold
• Brownbear - Demons
• Cloth - Secret Measure
• Comfort - What's Bad Enough?
• Eyes of Others - Eyes of Others
• Free Love - Inside
• Hamish Hawk - Angel Numbers
• Joesef - Permanent Damage
• Juliette Lemoine - Soaring
• Kapil Seshasayee - Laal
• LVRA - Soft Like Steel
• Paolo Nutini - Last Night in the Bittersweet
• Scott William Urquhart & Constant Follower - Even Days Dissolve
• The Snuts - Burn The Empire
• Su-a Lee - Dialogues
• Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
The SAY Award Longlist is formulated through an extraordinary nationwide consultation with members of Scotland’s music and arts communities. Each year, the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) tasks 100 impartial ‘Nominators’ – selected from sectors including journalism, music retail and music venues – with reviewing the eligible albums list and nominating their five favourite albums in order of preference. The SMIA assigns a score to each title in a Nominator’s Top 5, before announcing the 20 highest scoring albums as The SAY Award Longlist.
Robert Kilpatrick, Interim CEO and Creative Director of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) said, “Each year, artists, industry professionals and music fans alike eagerly anticipate which 20 outstanding Scottish albums will make up The SAY Award Longlist. The unifying platform that SAY offers compiled with the egalitarian nature of both our submissions and nominations process is, what I believe, makes The Longlist stand up as important, credible and authentic.
“Scotland’s cultural identity is shared; it belongs to and is influenced by everyone that calls Scotland home. In a music context, it’s the SMIA’s job to make sure that the full spectrum of Scotland’s music industry is reflected in our work, and with The SAY Award Longlist being determined by 100 impartial industry Nominators – comprising individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and genre specialisms from right across the country – this means it’s much more than a list of 20 great records; it’s the soundtrack of life in Scotland.
“A massive congratulations to each of this year’s nominees. With 2023 seeing a record-breaking 437 eligible albums submitted, it’s an amazing achievement and a testament to the strength and diversity of Scotland’s recorded output.”
Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland said, “The album is an anchor in the choppy seas of random playlists. It’s a personal statement of intent, a self-contained body of work that lets listeners know how an artist is feeling at a precise moment in time. The 20 nominees on this year’s SAY Award Longlist celebrate friendship and fatherhood, confront anxiety and identity, and sometimes just revel in the unbridled joy of good music. This is a fantastic snapshot of Scotland in all its creative glory.”
Stirling Council Leader Chris Kane said, “This is an exciting milestone in the countdown to this year’s SAY Award Ceremony at Stirling’s Albert Halls and a fantastic list of artists who have made the Longlist this year. I’m proud that a number of the nominated acts may be familiar to Stirling audiences through having performed at the Tolbooth, one of the best live-music venues in the country.”
From a record-breaking 437 eligible album submissions in 2023, this year’s Longlist spans the length and breadth of Scotland, with albums from the Highlands to the Central Belt making the cut, as well as newcomers and SAY Award alumni. Debuts from Becky Sikasa, LVRA and Brooke Combe sit alongside veterans of the Scottish music industry and previous SAY Award winners and Shortlisted artists including Young Fathers, Paolo Nutini and Andrew Wasylyk.
The Longlist will now be whittled down to a Shortlist of 10 albums, one of which will be chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online public vote from 2 - 4 October. The remaining nine albums will be chosen by The SAY Award judging panel, who will then later reconvene to determine 2023’s winner; exclusively announced at Stirling’s Albert Halls on Thursday 26 October at The SAY Award Ceremony 2023.
The SAY Award winner will receive a £20,000 prize and walk away with the coveted title of Scottish Album of the Year, whilst nine runners up on the Shortlist will each receive £1,000. All artists will also receive bespoke prizes created by a Stirling-based artist through The SAY Award Design Commission; highlighting the enduring links between music, art and design in Scotland.
The SAY Award winner will be revealed alongside the winner of The Sound of Young Scotland Award and the Modern Scottish Classic Award. The Sound of Young Scotland Award aims to stimulate the future of Scottish music and provides a young and emerging artist with financial support to enable the creation of their debut album, whilst the Modern Scottish Classic Award recognises an iconic album from Scotland’s past that still inspires today.
As one of the most highly anticipated nights in Scotland’s musical calendar, music fans can buy tickets to attend The SAY Award Ceremony now at sayaward.com; joining an audience of artists, industry professionals, press and cultural tastemakers to celebrate the cultural impact and contribution of outstanding Scottish albums. Set to a back-drop of special live performances that showcase the strength and diversity of Scotland’s musical landscape, The SAY Award Ceremony makes its return to Stirling’s Albert Halls on Thursday 26 October.
The SAY Award also continues its commitment to the support of young people in Scotland by partnering with the country’s young people’s mental health charity, Tiny Changes. Set up in memory of artist and Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, the organisation aims to help young minds feel better through a community of tiny change makers.
The SAY Award is a Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) production and has distributed over £330,000 in prize money to Scottish artists since its inception in 2012. The SAY Award 2023 is delivered in partnership with Creative Scotland, Stirling Council, Stirling Alive with Culture, YouTube Music, Seabass Vinyl, Ticketmaster, Help Musicians, HMV, FOPP, PPL, Spotify, Go Forth Stirling, Youth Music Initiative, Youth Music and Music Declares Emergency. The SAY Award’s Charity Partner for 2023 is Tiny Changes; Scotland’s very first national children and young people’s mental health charity funding projects and ideas that help young minds feel better.
Now in its twelfth year, previous winners of The SAY Award include; Fergus McCreadie ‘Forest Floor’ (2022), Mogwai ‘As The Love Continues' (2021), Nova ‘Re-Up’ (2020), Auntie Flo ‘Radio Highlife’ (2019), Young Fathers ‘Cocoa Sugar’ (2018), Sacred Paws ‘Strike A Match’ (2017), Anna Meredith ‘Varmints’ (2016), Kathryn Joseph ‘Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled’ (2015), Young Fathers ‘Tape Two’ (2014), RM Hubbert ‘Thirteen Lost & Found’ (2013) and the inaugural winner Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat ‘Everything’s Getting Older’ (2012).
Tickets for 2023’s ceremony at the Albert Halls, Stirling are on sale now via www.sayaward.com with 2022’s winner Fergus McCreadie set to perform before the winner of Scotland’s national album prize is revealed.
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