VILLAGERS are the winner of the 2013 Meteor Choice Music Prize for best Irish album of the year with their record {Awayland} winning the prize at an event in Dublin last night.
Led by singer and songwriter Conor O’Brien, the band were a popular choice for the for the €10,000 prize, although the bookies favourite were Waterford act O Emperor.
Villagers were previously nominated for the prize in 2010 for their debut album, Becoming a Jackal , but that award went to Two Door Cinema Club. O'Brien had also been nominated for the award in 2006 as part of The Immediate
Last night O’Brien, widely hailed as one of the finest Irish songwriters of his generation, thanked the audience at Vicar Street for listening to “my weird little songs”. He describedAwayland as “not better but different” from its predecessor.
Ten albums were shortlisted for the prize with seven of the shortlisted acts performing live last night.
The judging panel included Irish Post Digital Media & Entertainment Editor Steve Cummins.
Dublin acoustic rappers The Original Rudeboys won the Meteor Choice Music prize Irish song of the year 2013 with Never Going To Walk Away . The song was only released at the end of November.
This year, for the first time, RTE 2 Television will broadcast a one-hour highlights programme of the Meteor Choice Music Prize on Sunday March 2nd at 10.25pm.
The full shortlist of nominated albums was:
And So I Watch You From Afar - All Hail Bright Futures (Sargent House)
Bell X1 – Chop Chop (Belly Up Records)
Girls Names – The New Life (Tough Love)
Kodaline – In A Perfect World (Sony Music)
Little Green Cars – Absolute Zero (Universal Music)
Mano Le Tough – Changing Days (Permanent Vacation)
My Bloody Valentine – MBV (MBV Records)
O Emperor – Vitreous (Big Skin)
Lisa O’ Neill – Same Cloth or Not (Song Seeds Records)
Villagers – {Awayland} (Domino)
