Artist News Awards

Scottish Album Of The Year Award shortlist announced

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 9 October 2020

The shortlist for this year’s Scottish Album Of The Year Award has been announced, selecting the ten best Scottish albums of the last year. Meanwhile, award organiser the Scottish Music Industry Association has used the shortlist announcement to call for more support for the country’s music community as it continues to navigate the COVID storm.

“This year’s shortlist is an emotive list of records which shows strength, ambition and confidence in the last year of Scotland’s recorded output”, says SMIA General Manager Robert Kilpatrick. “It presents a strong sense of Scotland’s diverse cultural identity, particularly from a wave of new artists, with an incredible eight debut albums making up the shortlist of ten; a first in the history of the award”.

“This year’s shortlist poignantly showcases a future vision of Scottish music – of Scotland’s music industry – one which urgently needs targeted, sector-specific government support to wave the continued storms of the COVID-19 crisis and to allow a vital industry on its knees to survive”, he adds.

“Music adds key economic, social and cultural benefits to our society and to each of our lives”, he goes on. “It plays a fundamental role in driving tourism through our events and festivals, having generated £494 million for Scotland’s economy in 2018. But most importantly, our musical output helps us connect with both ourselves and each other. It provides us with emotional and mental well-being, and it often reflects the stories of our lives and the stories of our communities”.

“All of this is currently at risk, and without further targeted support, our sector faces a severe and catastrophic loss of jobs and skills which would do long-term damage to music and culture for decades to come”, he says.

He concludes: “As we announce this year’s SAY Award Shortlist, it also comes with a message that celebrating and championing our music and culture is more important now than ever. The strength of the albums on this year’s shortlist gives a compelling reason for all of us to do so, not least due to the fact that it highlights the quality and strength of new Scottish talent, and how much that needs to be supported at this fundamental time”.

Each artist on the shortlist has a guaranteed prize of £1000. The overall winner – set to be announced on 29 Oct – will have that bumped up to £20,000.

Here’s the full shortlist:

Blanck Mass – Animated Violence Mild

Bossy Love – Me + U

Callum Easter – Here Or Nowhere

Cloth – Cloth

Comfort – Not Passing

Declan Welsh & The Decadent West – Cheaply Bought, Expensively Sold

Erland Cooper – Sule Skerry

The Ninth Wave – Infancy

Nova – Re-up

Shee – Shhe