Just today people were talking about big money bets coming in for Speech Debelle to win the Mercury Prize, and what do you know, the British rapper rode Ladbrokes’ 4/1 odds and the votes of the Mercury High Council Of Accomplished Elders to bag the coveted, Barclays-sponsored music prize. When she won everybody yelled “Speech!” but it was unclear if they were cheering her on or telling her to address the ballroom. Speech’s Speech Therapy edged out a worthy nominee in Bat For Lashes’ Two Suns. Oh, and everybody else I guess? (Everybody else includes Florence & The Machine, La Roux, the Horrors, Kasabian, et al.) Debelle collected the award at a ceremony tonight in London featuring performances from most of the 12 nominees (Glasvegas had to cancel for illness.) And as for Speech, well she’s a 26-year-old south London native whose whole world just got a little more interesting. Here she is in action in the video for “Better Days,” with (the completely snubbed) Micachu.

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Earlier this morning, British DJ/television presenter Lauren Laverne announced the dozen 2009 Mercury nominees at London’s Hospital Club. The prize, of course, is for the UK’s album of the year award. First things first: In order to be eligible, the album must’ve been released by a British or Irish artist/band between July 2008 and July 2009, so don’t get upset if you don’t see Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors or Animal Collective on the list. That said, it does include at least one Stereogum favorite. Hint: She likes Kate Bush, The Karate Kid, and has an evil blonde twin. Now take a deep breath for the rest:

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Last week we took a listen at Lisa Hannigan’s solo demo work with “Lille“: lilting, fragile, fingerpicked. While distanced enough from her work with Damo, it wasn’t the upbeat soundtrack to cute home movies of Lisa with kids and in buses and dancing in vocal booths. To fill that obvious need in our lives, we turn to this Tim Osander-directed video for “My Pirate Disco,” which again is labeled a demo, but again is fairly well realized (musically, anyway; not so sure about the spinning-rainbow-splooge-of-paint motif). Nice shuffle groove and writing, and pretty sunshiney vis a vis her previous employ. So many smiles! Yay. (Thanks again, Aoife)

Next in line for the Starbucks set: Stereogum reader Nathan M. expressed his dismay at this announcement on damienrice.com:

Band update – 25 Mar 2007
After much thought and discussion Damien has decided that his professional relationship with Lisa Hannigan has run its creative course. As a result Lisa will not be appearing at any of the upcoming live shows. Lisa is embarking on her own artistic endeavours and there are no plans for them to work together in the foreseeable future. The current band on tour at the moment are – Damien Rice, Joel Shearer, Shane Fitzsimons, Tom Osander & Vyvienne Long.

Says Nathan: “Sucks for those of us with tickets to the upcoming US tour.” You guys know we’re big Hannigan fans, and her burgeoning solo career is undoubtedly a factor, but isn’t it more fun to postulate irresponsibly that their “professional relationship” running its “creative course” actually is shrouded in salacious circumstances? Fan fiction time: Make up a scandalous backstory to the rift and departure. Maybe use this pic for inspiration.

Seems like we’re incapable of mentioning Damien Rice without fawning over his accompanying vocalist, Lisa Hannigan. Her hand-wringing and char-burned vocal charm slay us, and aside from bootlegs and radio rips of Lisa performing covers, there really isn’t much out there that to feed our fixation. So big thanks to Stereogum reader Aoife for pointing us to Other Voices, a show on RTÉ Two TV, which features Lisa in a 17 minute performance and interview segment. The first song’s a little forgettable, but you’ll fall in love during the interview (hers is the classic “always the bridesmaid, never a bride” story, and she’s instantly endearing, like a real-life movie heroine minus the contrived Hollywood bullshit). And her performances on the show from there on are just mesmerizing.

Lisa Hannigan On Other Voices (Real)

You probably won’t see this clip on P4K, but here’s the new vid from our sad, sad friend Damien Rice. Worth a watch ’cause Lisa Hannigan is mesmerizing, even as a floating head balloon. (Okay, especially as a floating head balloon.) Creepy? Yes. But not as creepy as this.