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Mercury Music Prize – Arctic Monkeys Lose Lead

added 16 August 2007 at 11.07

The odds for who’ll win this year’s Nationwide Mercury Music Prize have changed dramatically with Arctic Monkeys slipping down from being the bookies’ top tip and there’s a new favourite to win…

Initially last year's winner Arctic Monkeys were joint front runners with Amy Winehouse at 4/1, but twenty four hours later Winehouse edged ahead of the Sheffield leaving them at 5/1.

But now – Shock! Horror! Awe! Gasp! - Arctic Monkeys have now slumped to fourth place at 10/1, behind Klaxons (8/1) and Jamie T (3/1).

And – even more surprisingly - Amy Winehouse has been ousted from the top spot and Bat For Lashes (aka singer-songwriter Natasha Khan) is now bookies favourite to take home the award and the estimated £20,000 prize money.

Speaking exclusively to Xfm, Natasha seemed genuinely surprised.

“Oh my goodness! I'm managing to keep it together I guess. It all sounds like everything has gone a bit crazy for Amy though lately. But yeah, I don’t know what that means. That’s bizarre to hear but we’ll see what happens I guess.

“It’s really nice to get that support and it’s quite surprising because, for an album that started so small and so humbly, it seems to have come full circle. It’s good that lots more people are getting to hear about it. I think that’s the thing that I’m so excited about, is the sort of creative opportunities that will come out of that."

The full current odds are

• Bat For Lashes - 5/2 
• Amy Winehouse - 5/2 
• Jamie T - 3/1 
• Klaxons - 7/1 
• Fionn Regan - 12/1 
• Arctic Monkeys - 12/1 
• Maps - 14/1 
• The View - 20/1 
• The Young Knives - 25/1 
• New Young Pony Club - 25/1 
• Dizzee Rascal - 33/1 
• Basquiat Strings - 33/1

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