Mercury Prize 2016: Michael C. Hall calls working with David Bowie a ‘life highlight’ on red carpet

The Lazarus actor is performing a Bowie tribute at the Mercury ceremony
The Weekender

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Actor Michael C Hall has spoken about working with David Bowie at the Mercury Prize 2016.

The Dexter star, who is playing the lead in Bowie’s musical Lazarus, will be giving a special performance at the Mercury ceremony following Bowie’s death in January.

“Since working with [Bowie] on Lazarus and being a part of that entire experience, it’s not just a career highlight, but a highlight of my life,” he told Standard.co.uk on the red carpet.

After a successful run in New York, Lazarus will be playing in London from October 25 with Hall remaining in the lead role.

“I was a Bowie fan growing up,” Hall said. “I had revisited a lot of his music shortly before Lazarus started because I was playing Hedwig in the Angry Inch – Bowie’s sensibility, and his music, is such an influence in that character and in that world – that I was listening to it a lot again.”

Bowie is the bookies’ favourite to win the Mercury for his final album Blackstar, which was released just days before his death.

Mercury Prize 2016: red carpet

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If the record receives the accolade, it will be the first time an artist has posthumously won the Mercury Prize.

This year’s shortlisted albums include Adore Life by Savages, Made in the Major by Kano, Konnichiwa by Skepta, Channel the Spirits by The Comet is Coming, The Bride by Bat For Lashes, The Dreaming Room by Laura Mvula, A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead, Hopelessness by Anohni, Making Time by Jamie Woon, Love & Hate by Michael Kiwanuka, and I Like it When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It by The 1975.

Mercury Prize 2016: the shortlisted albums

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A statement from the judging panel, made up of musicians and industry experts, said: “The 2016 Hyundai Mercury Prize 'Albums of the Year' are marked by their musical ambitions, unexpected instrumentation and breathtaking arrangements."

The winner is due to be announced on the evening of September 15.

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