The SAY Award: Submissions open for 2024
The Scottish Album of the Year Award for 2024 launches today, with public submissions open until the end of July
It's the thirteenth year of the Scottish Album of the Year Award, or SAY Award for short, and the long process of picking 2024's winner begins today.
Step one is submissions: from today, anyone – musicians, record labels, promoters, DJs and music fans – can put forward their favourite album by a Scottish artist for consideration via SAYAward.com. Your chosen album must have been released between 1 June last year and 31 May this year; additional eligibility info on everything from the definition of an 'album' to how the SAY Award determine whether or not a band or artist is 'Scottish' can be found on the SAY Award website.
Once the submissions are in, 100 nominators from across the Scottish music scene will put forward their favourite records from the list; the 20 highest scoring records from that process will make up the Longlist, and the top ten from that list (as chosen by the SAY Award judging panel) will make up the Shortlist.
The 2024 SAY Award winner will go home with a £20,000 prize, while the remaining shortlisted artists receive £1000 each. The SAY Award's additional prizes also return for 2024 – the Modern Scottish Classic Award will be awarded to an iconic Scottish album from pre-SAY Award times, while the Sound of Young Scotland Award goes to a new Scottish act to help them with the costs and challenges of recording their debut album.
SAY Award returns to Stirling
The SAY Award will once again call Stirling its home this year, with the 2024 ceremony taking place at the Albert Halls on Thursday 24 October as part of the city's 900th anniversary celebrations. One particularly intriguing development teased today is a series of SAY Award Fringe events at Tolbooth, including "live performances from previous SAY Award nominees who will play the records that saw them nominated for Scotland’s national music prize in full." No news on who's playing yet – keep eyes on the SAY socials (@sayaward in all the usual places) for more details closer to the time.
The 2023 SAY Award went to Young Fathers; they won the top prize for a record-breaking third time for the spectacular Heavy Heavy. Other past winners of the SAY Award include Fergus McCreadie, NOVA, Anna Meredith, Sacred Paws and Auntie Flo.
Submit your favourite Scottish album for consideration via sayaward.com – submissions close at midnight on 31 Jul
The SAY Award 2024 will be presented at Albert Halls, Stirling on 24 Oct; tickets on sale now via sayaward.com