The SAY Award Design Commission Now Open For Creatives In Unesco City Of Design
Scotland’s national music prize, the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award, has unveiled a new host city for the next three years, with the award ceremony moving to Dundee in November 2025, celebrating the cultural impact and contribution of outstanding Scottish albums and marking the first time the Ceremony will be held outwith the Central Belt. To celebrate the new partnership with the city, The SAY Award has also opened expressions of interest for its Design Commission, calling on local creators to design prizes for this year’s nominees and winners.
With only one week to go until eligible album submissions open for 2025’s award (1st July), the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) revealed The SAY Award’s new location as the Caird Hall in the heart of Dundee. This year’s Ceremony will take place on 6th November 2025, where the winner will receive a £20,000 first prize, along with the coveted title of Scottish Album of the Year. Additionally, the winner of the Modern Scottish Classic Award will be celebrated, and 2025’s Sound of Young Scotland Award winner will be exclusively revealed.
The Caird Hall will host The SAY Award from 2025 – 2027, as part of a new collaboration between the city and Scotland’s national music prize, previously held in Stirling from 2022 – 2024. An iconic venue which has hosted music’s biggest names, from The Beatles to Bjork, the Caird Hall celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. Now, set to host artists from all genres of music across Scotland, the Ceremony at the Caird Hall will feature live music performances as well as celebrations of this year’s Shortlist and the ultimate unveiling of the SAY Award winner. There has never been a better time to visit Dundee, a city steeped in culture, creativity and innovation and named ‘the coolest little city in the UK’ by GQ Magazine. Early bird tickets for the Ceremony at Caird Hall are on sale now.
As the UK’s first, and only, UNESCO City of Design, Dundee will celebrate its status as a cultural powerhouse in partnership with The SAY Award, 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. Submit an expression of interest via www.sayaward.com/designcommission
The SAY Design Commission offers a fee of £3,000 for the design and manufacture of the awards, with a key focus on sustainability. Previous awards have included sand-cast glass sculptures, jesmonite arches and low-carbon concrete totems, with local designers encouraged to consider a zero-waste approach and take inspiration from the city of Dundee for their submissions.
Now in its fourteenth year, 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 can be part of the country’s national music prize as Scotland’s music industry gathers in November to celebrate Scottish music; past, present and future. 2024’s winners rEDOLENT will also perform at The SAY Award Ceremony as the Caird Hall welcomes over 1,500 fans and industry alike on the night.
Artists, music fans, record labels and more will be encouraged to submit eligible albums for free, from 1st July, to be in with the chance of winning The SAY Award. 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.
Music fans, artists and labels can submit eligible albums for free via www.sayaward.com – submissions open 00.01am 1st July 2025 and close 11.59pm 31st July 2025
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.
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. Accompanying the main album of the year prize, 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 Bennet’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,
“Following three incredible years hosting Scotland’s national music prize at Stirling’s Albert Halls, the SMIA is both delighted and proud to be calling Dundee’s iconic Caird Hall the new home of The SAY Award.
“Established in 2012 and originally hosted in Glasgow, we introduced our Host City model in 2016 to broaden The SAY Award’s reach, deepen place-based impact and ensure nation-wide cultural benefit. “Since then, we’ve worked in three-year cycles to move the Ceremony across the country; supporting regional industry development, establishing local partnerships and celebrating the strength and diversity of Scotland’s ever-evolving recorded output in a range of cultural contexts.
“Dundee has long been a city we’ve aspired to bring SAY to, and now feels like the perfect time to do so. From iconic artists and grassroots music venues to major cultural institutions and a proud DIY spirit, it’s a place where creativity, innovation and collaboration are deeply embedded, and we’re honoured to be adding to its rich musical heritage.
“Through our partnership with Leisure & Culture Dundee, V&A Dundee, Dundee City Council and UNESCO Dundee City of Design, we’re excited to amplify the city’s creative identity and welcome over 1,500 guests from across Scotland, the wider UK and beyond to our 2025 Ceremony on Thursday 6 November.
“Early bird tickets are on sale now, with 2024’s SAY Award winners rEDOLENT set to open this year’s show; passing the baton to 2025’s Scottish Album of the Year Award winner. And with eligible album submissions opening next week, we’re just getting started on what promises to be a landmark year for Scottish music.
“I hope that many of you can join us as we begin an exciting new chapter, with Dundee at the heart of celebrating, promoting and rewarding outstanding Scottish music.”
Anna Day, Head of Libraries and Culture at Leisure & Culture Dundee said,
“We couldn’t be happier that The SAY Award is coming to the Caird Hall and Dundee for the next three years. As the musical heart of the city for generations, Caird Hall is ready for a bold new chapter. Partnering on The SAY Award marks a major step in our broader ambition to re-energise what the Caird Hall offers to audiences, artists and partners. We now can’t wait to welcome the Scottish music community through its doors and onto its stage.”
Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee said, “We are all thrilled to be supporting this new three-year partnership with The SAY Award, bringing Scotland’s prestigious music industry awards to Dundee, a creative city recognised as the UK’s first and only UNESCO City of Design. Celebrating today’s announcement is the launch of The 2025 SAY Award Design Commission, highlighting the enduring links between music, art and design, and we are delighted this unique opportunity to design and make the awards for the winning artists is now open to Dundee’s skilled and talented creative community, with their work being profiled at this year’s SAY Award Ceremony at Caird Hall in November.”
Cllr Lynne Short, Dundee City Council’s spokesperson for culture, sport and history said,
“Music of all kinds provides the soundtrack to our city, whether it’s the vibrant busking culture we have in the city centre, open-air gigs by established acts at Slessor Gardens or up and coming grass-roots bands in many of our small pubs and clubs.
“We have always been a city with a passion for music, and I am delighted that the Scottish Music Industry Association has chosen to make Dundee the home of The SAY Award for the next three years in a way that recognises this.”
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 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.
Now in its fourteenth year, 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).