Mercury Prize Winners Announced Tonight

The winner of the 2011 Mercury Music Prize will be revealed this evening in a ceremony in London, where twelve acts will compete for one of the most prestigious awards in British and Irish music.

Jools Holland and Lauren Laverne will present live coverage of the awards from 10pm tonight on BBC Two.

All of the nominated acts will perform at the bash, including Adele who has recently had to cancel a series of performances due to issues with her throat.

The dozen albums that appear on the shortlist are picked by a Mercury committee comprised of industry experts, musicians and journalists from the UK and here in Ireland. Previous winners include The xx, Elbow, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.

Bookmakers Paddy Power currently have PJ Harvey as favourite to win the award for her album Let England Shake, with Anna Calvi and James Blake set to push her close with their critically acclaimed self-titled debut albums. Adele is surprisingly only fourth favourite to win the award, but the Mercury's are known for oftentimes ignoring the bookies favourite in favour of a much lesser known release.

The full list of nominees for the 2011 Mercury Music Prize is as follows:

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Island Records
Odds: 5/4