€10k Choice Prize for best album

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize will be awarded on Thursday for Album Of 2021. The winner gets €10,000 prize money and will be picked from a shortlist of 10, compiled by a panel of respected music industry figures. For the first time since March 2020, the awards, in association with IRMA and IMRO, take place in front of an audience, with most nominees performing on the night. The winner of The Choice Song Of The Year – with Inhaler, Dermot Kennedy and Kynsy among the nominees – will also be revealed during the Vicar Street ceremony, which will be broadcast live on 2FM from 7pm. Last year, Denise Chaila won for her debut, Go Bravely. In the final shakeup, there are five female acts or outfits in which a woman feature. Orchestral pop duo Saint Sister’s nomination is for Where I Should End. Indie pop outfit Soda Blonde, fronted by Faye O’Rourke, get a nod for their debut Small Talk. Susan O’Neill and Mick Flannery’s In The Game is also in the running, while Elaine Mai and Orla Gartland are nominated for Home and Woman On The Internet respectively. Villagers make the cut for Fever Dreams, while Paul Noonan – who has been on the shortlist a record four times with Bell X1 – is up with Daithí as electronic rock duo Houseplants for Dry Goods. Dublin rapper Kojaque is in the frame for Town’s Dead. Belfast electro duo Bicep’s second album Isles is the most commercially successful of the nominees, having entered both the Irish and British charts at No.2. However, like its British equivalent, the Mercury Prize, commercial success has been no signifier of prospects at the Choice Music Prize in the 17 years of its existence. The album I think might win – and I feel deserves to win – is For Those I Love, the musical project of Dubliner

David Balfe. It is also the name of a debut album that still provokes and moves 11 months after its release.