SAY Award: The 2025 Longlist

The biggest prize in Scottish music, the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award, has revealed the 20 outstanding albums in the running to be crowned Scottish Album of the Year for 2025 and win this year's £20,000 prize. Whittled down from 401 eligible album submissions, the list gives a great snapshot of the scope and quality of music being created in Scotland right now, with genres ranging from indie pop and R'n'B/soul to folk, jazz and dance.

Past winners and nominees return

Among the nominees are two previous SAY Award winners: Kathryn Joseph for WE WERE MADE PREY and Mogwai for The Bad Fire. Fresh from winning the Independent Breakthrough at the AIM (Association of Independent Music) Awards, Glasgow jazz virtuoso corto.alto is also in the mix for 30/108. A bunch of previous SAY Award longlist and shortlist nominees are up for the prize again, like Hamish Hawk for A Firmer Hand, Cloth for Pink Silence, Walt Disco for The Warping, TAAHLIAH for Gramarye and Brooke Combe for Dancing At the Edge of the World.

Jacob Alon, Maranta and Kai Reesu longlisted

There are plenty of SAY Award newbies too, with the likes of Faith Eliott (dryas), Kai Reesu (KOMPROMAT Vol.i), and Zoe Graham (TENT) all getting their first nominations, while synth pop duo Maranta received their debut nod for their first and final album together, Day Long Dream. 

Another first-time nominee is Jacob Alon (also in the running for the Mercury Prize this year) for their glittering debut In Limerence. On hearing about the SAY nomination, Alon made this lovely statement: “My loves, it means so much to me to be longlisted for The SAY Award – more than I can SAY… ha. I feel so lucky to stand alongside so many incredible artists and icons and pals making some of the most exciting art to come out of the country at the moment. As someone who, for so long, hasn’t felt like there was a place for them to belong, I feel so lucky to have found a place here with yous. This is fae Fife, the queers, and the ones that dare to follow their dreams.”

SAY Award public vote opens next month

Over the next few weeks, the longlist – listed in full below – will be whittled down further to a shortlist of ten albums. One will be selected by music fans via a public vote from 13-15 Oct, and the remaining nine will be chosen by The SAY Award judging panel. This shortlist will be announced on 16 October, along with details of the five artists nominated for 2025’s Sound of Young Scotland Award, the prize for which is a funding package worth up to £10,000 to support the creation of the winner’s debut album.

The winning album will be announced at The SAY Award Ceremony on 6 November at the new location of Dundee’s Caird Hall. The ceremony will feature performances from Brooke Combe, corto.alto and Dillon Barrie, as well as last year's SAY Award winners rEDOLENT. 

The SAY Award 2025 longlist in full

Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman – Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On
Be Charlotte – Self Help and Fictional Doubts
Brooke Combe – Dancing at the Edge of the World
Cloth – Pink Silence
Constant Follower – The Smile You Send Out Returns to You
corto.alto – 30/108 
Faith Eliott – dryas
Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand
Jacob Alon – In Limerence
Kai Reesu – KOMPROMAT vol.i
Kathryn Joseph – WE WERE MADE PREY
kitti – Somethin' in the Water
Maranta – Day Long Dream
Matt Carmichael – Dancing with Embers
Mogwai – The Bad Fire
Rebecca Vasmant – Who We Are, Becoming
TAAHLIAH – Gramarye 
The Joy Hotel – Ceremony
Walt Disco – The Warping
Zoe Graham – TENT

---

Stream the twenty longlisted albums here
The 2025 SAY Award ceremony takes place on Thu 6 Nov at Caird Hall, Dundee – tickets available now via sayaward.com