SAY Award opens submissions for eligible albums

Scotland’s national music prize – the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award – has opened submissions for 2025’s £20,000 prize.

Article Source: SAY Award
Last Updated: 1 July 2025 9:39

1st July- Scotland’s national music prize – the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award – has opened submissions for 2025’s £20,000 prize, with music fans, artists and labels now encouraged to submit eligible albums for free.

Last week, the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) revealed that The SAY Award moves to its new host city, Dundee, for the first time ever, celebrating the cultural impact and contribution of outstanding Scottish albums, with the winning album crowned Scottish Album of the Year.

Submit eligible albums for free via www.sayaward.com - submissions close 11.59pm Thursday 31st July 2025.

Now in its fourteenth year, The SAY Award is encouraging artists, music fans, labels and more to submit eligible albums for free, to be in with the chance of winning the £20,000 prize and coveted title. To be considered for 2025’s award, eligible albums must have been released between 1st June 2024 and 31st May 2025 and meet The SAY Award’s eligibility criteria. To submit albums, plus view eligibility criteria and guidelines for 2025’s award, visit www.sayaward.com.

The SAY Award will move outside the Central Belt for the first time in 2025, with Dundee’s Caird Hall hosting the Ceremony on Thursday 6th November. 2024’s winners redolent are returning to perform on the night in front of over 1,500 music fans and industry, with further live performances due to be announced.

Previous winners include redolent, Young Fathers, Kathryn Joseph, Mogwai, Anna Meredith, Fergus McCreadie and more, with The SAY Award having distributed over £390,000 in prize money to Scottish artists since its inception in 2012. Albums released in the past twelve months, which can be submitted for consideration this year, include records from Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand, TAAHLIAH, Nina Nesbitt, Erland Cooper, Be Charlotte, Twin Atlantic, corto.alto, Tide Lines, Sacred Paws and many more.

As the UK’s first, and only, UNESCO City of Design, Dundee will celebrate its status as a cultural powerhouse with this year’s prizes set to be created by a local Dundee designer. Highlighting the enduring links between music, art and design, The SAY Award Design Commission invites local Dundee makers to create bespoke prizes for the winning artists at this year’s Ceremony.

The SAY Award winner will receive a £20,000 prize and the coveted title of Scottish Album of the Year, whilst nine runners up will each receive £1,000, as well as bespoke prizes created by a Dundee-based artist through The SAY Award Design Commission.

Also awarded on the night, the Modern Scottish Classic Award will recognise an iconic album from Scotland’s past that still inspires Scottish musicians today, and the Sound of Young Scotland Award – supported by Help Musicians, the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative through Creative Scotland and Youth Music – will provide a young and emerging artist with a funding package to support the creation of their debut album, including manufacturing support from Seabass Vinyl; Scotland’s first vinyl pressing plant. 2024’s Modern Scottish Classic winner was Martyn Bennett’s ‘Grit’, with Dillon Barrie collecting The Sound of Young Scotland Award.

Robert Kilpatrick, CEO and Creative Director of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) said, “What does it mean to be alive in Scotland right now? To get a sense of that – in all its idiosyncratic glory – look no further than our eligible albums list, as we begin compiling the records that tell our stories and soundtrack our lives, and that make up Scotland’s recorded output from the past 12 months.

“It’s been a turbulent time for Scotland’s cultural sector in recent years, with challenges arising from Brexit, Covid, the cost of living crisis, and more recently, significant strains on public funding. This year’s SAY Award, however, follows a £34 million uplift in culture funding from the Scottish Government for 2025–26; a vital and welcome investment that brings much-needed stability and a renewed confidence to Scotland’s creative landscape. Whilst this is an important step forward, there’s been some undeniable bruises along the way, with impacts still being felt. We now look to the future with the ambition of seeing continued progress towards the Government’s pledge of £100 million in additional annual culture investment by 2028–29. That level of support would enable more artists, industry professionals and music businesses to reach their potential and generate a triple bottom line return for Scotland; economically, socially and culturally.

“With Dundee’s iconic Caird Hall now confirmed as The SAY Award’s new home from 2025–27, this year’s campaign will spotlight the city’s creative identity while showcasing the strength and diversity of Scottish music on a national stage.

“Thanks to the support of our partners, we’re proud to begin a four-month celebration of outstanding Scottish albums. We look forward to immersing ourselves in this year’s submissions, and we encourage music fans to explore the albums as they appear on The SAY Award website. One will eventually emerge as Scottish Album of the Year, and we’ll mark that achievement with over 1,500 guests at Dundee’s Caird Hall on Thursday 6 November. It promises to be another unforgettable night, and I hope you can join us.”

Once all eligible albums have been collated for The SAY Award, 100 impartial ‘Nominators’, chosen from sectors including journalism, music retail and music venues across Scotland, nominate and rank their five favourite albums in order of preference. The SMIA assigns a score to each title in a Nominator’s Top 5, before announcing the 20 highest scoring albums as The SAY Award Longlist.
The Longlist will then be whittled down to a Shortlist of 10 albums, one of which will be chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online public vote. The remaining nine albums will be chosen by The SAY Award judging panel, before judges then choose the winning album, exclusively announced at 2025’s ceremony.

The SAY Award’s new three year partnership with Leisure & Culture Dundee, V&A Dundee, Dundee City Council and UNESCO Dundee City of Design means music fans in the north east of Scotland are at the centre of the celebrations as Scotland’s music community gathers in November to attend the country’s national music prize.
The SAY Award is a Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) production. The SAY Award 2025 is delivered in partnership with Creative Scotland, Leisure & Culture Dundee, V&A Dundee, Dundee City Council, UNESCO Dundee City of Design, Seabass Vinyl, PPL, HMV, FOPP, Help Musicians, the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative, Youth Music, 71 Brewing, Bon Accord, Apex Hotels, Malmaison and Music Declares Emergency.

Previous winners of The SAY Award include; redolent ‘dinny greet’ (2024), Young Fathers ‘Heavy Heavy’ (2023), Fergus McCreadie ‘Forest Floor’ (2022), Mogwai ‘As The Love Continues' (2021), Nova ‘Re-Up’ (2020), Auntie Flo ‘Radio Highlife’ (2019), Young Fathers ‘Cocoa Sugar’ (2018), Sacred Paws ‘Strike A Match’ (2017), Anna Meredith ‘Varmints’ (2016), Kathryn Joseph ‘Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled’ (2015), Young Fathers ‘Tape Two’ (2014), RM Hubbert ‘Thirteen Lost & Found’ (2013) and the inaugural winner Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat ‘Everything’s Getting Older’ (2012).

Early-bird SAY Award Ceremony tickets on sale now via www.sayaward.com
£24 + booking fee

Image: rEDOLENT at Caird Hall, Dundee
Image credit: Grant Anderson

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