The annual Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award is around the corner, and the shortlist has been announced.
The SAY Award celebrates Scottish musicians and exists to “enrich, stimulate, inspire, and enhance” the Scottish music industry.
The ten-album shortlist will grant one winner a prize of £20,000, the nine runner’s up will be given £1,000 each. This year, the ceremony will return to the Albert Halls in Stirling. Special live performances and exclusive winner announcements are featured at this event, and tickets can be booked here.
The shortlist for 2024 features:
Arab Strap I’m totally fine with it don’t give a f**k anymore
Barry Can’t Swim When Will We Land?
Becky Sikasa The Writings and the Pictures and the Song
corto.alto Bad With Names
Dead Pony IGNORE THIS
Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand Willson Williams
Lucia & The Best Boys Burning Castles
Rachel Sermanni Dreamer Awake
rEDOLENT dinny greet
Theo Bleak Pain
Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand’s Willson Williams won the public shortlist vote this year. The other nine shortlisted nominees were chosen by a panel of judges.
Willson Williams sees folk-rock instrumentals mixed with “reflective, sincere lyrics” as the two seasoned singer songwriters in this collaborative LP. Kathryn is no stranger to collaborative projects and has 18 albums to her name. Withered Hand, Dan Willson, is an established Edinburgh-based indie-folk artist with three LPs under his belt.
Alongside the Scottish Album of the Year Award, the Sound of Young Scotland (SYS) Award and the Modern Scottish Classic (MSC) Award will also be presented. The SYS Award is designed to support beginning artists. The SYS Award winner will walk away with a funding package to help pay for their debut album. The MSC Award winner will leave with a bespoke art prize, created by The SAY Award Design Commission.
The Award
Introduced in 2012, the SAY Award has committed itself to celebrating Scottish music and artists. After the ceremony, more than £360,000 will have been awarded to Scottish artists by the organisation and its partners that helped to make such prizes possible. This money has helped them establish a place in the industry to grow their sound and their audience.
The ceremony will be held on October 24 at Albert Halls, Stirling. Doors open at 7pm. More information about the awards can be found here.
Featured Image Credit: SAY Award / X (formerly Twitter)
Fourth year student journalist studying Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Journalism Studies.
Words at Brig, The Daily Evergreen, Alloa Advertiser, Discovery Music Scotland, and The Mourning Paper.
