From Pitchfork:
The European music world was shocked and awed today when experimental cabaret specters Antony and the Johnsons?? I Am a Bird Now beat out such favorites as Kaiser Chiefs?? Employment, Bloc Party??s Silent Alarm, Coldplay??s X & Y and M.I.A.??s Arularto win the 2005 Nationwide Mercury Prize for the best British or Irish album of the year. Wait a second? British or Irish? Doesn??t Antony rep downtown NYC? Indeed he does, but the androgynous crooner was born in Chichester, a small South England town, and all you need to qualify for the Mercury Prize is a British passport. Kaiser Chiefs are probably hella pissed right now, having raised a big stink in the press over the unfairness of Antony??s nomination; drummer Nick Hodgson told The Guardian, ??It's a good album, but it's daft he's got in on a technicality" (ooh, snap, he said ??daft?!) C??mon guys, are you really gonna fight a dude in a dress?
Both Antony and the Kaisers performed at the awards ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, along with fellow nominees Bloc Party, Maximo Park, the Magic Numbers, the Go! Team, KT Tunstall, Seth Lakeman, and Polar Bear. (Now I know Pitchfork is supposed to be all up on the bands-you-haven??t-heard-of tip, but seriously, who the fuck are those last three? Aliases for A.C. Newman, Jens Lenkman and Panda Bear?) According to BBC News, as Antony accepted the award, he said, "I think they must have made a mistake. I am completely overwhelmed. I think that's insane." The winner of the £20,000 prize is selected by a panel of musicians, journalists and industry folks. Past winners have included Franz Ferdinand (2004), Dizzee Rascal (2003), PJ Harvey (2001) and, uh, Ms. Dynamite (2002).
