Mercury Prize 2014: Winner announcement awaited

The acts who made the shortlist include Blur's Damon Albarn, poet and rapper Kate Tempest, alt-R&B singer FKA Twigs and electro-funk duo Jungle.

Bombay Bicycle Club, Anna Calvi, GoGo Penguin, Polar Bear and Royal Blood are also up for the £20,000 prize.

Nick Mulvey, East India Youth and Young Fathers complete the 12-strong list.

Nick Grimshaw will host this year's awards ceremony, to take place at the Roundhouse in north London.

The BBC Radio 1 DJ said it was "a real honour" to present an awards show that "celebrates the best British talent that we have to offer".

Bookmakers William Hill have cut the odds of FKA Twigs winning this year from 5/2 to 2/1.

Her closest rival is Tempest at 11-4, while rock duo Royal Blood have been backed at 5-1.

Barnett - the "FKA" stands for "Formerly Known As" - has become a tabloid fixture thanks to her close friendship with Robert Pattinson.

The 26-year-old recently said she was "shocked and disgusted" by some of the reactions on social media to her relationship with the Twilight actor.

"I didn't know I was a favourite but I don't feel any pressure beyond that," the former backing dancer told the Official Charts Company.

"All I can do now is concentrate on creating more work and creating more videos and becoming a better producer."

Sales boost

All 12 shortlisted albums have seen a sales boost since the nominations announcement on 10 September.

Manchester-based jazz trio GoGo Penguin has experienced the biggest increase percentage-wise, its 138% upturn swelling the overall sales of their second album v2.0 to 3,617 copies.

Tempest has enjoyed the second largest growth, with sales of her Everybody Down record having more than doubled since it was listed among this year's nominated albums.

In contrast, being nominated appears to have had little impact on more established nominees like former Blur member Albarn and Bombay Bicycle Club.

They, along with singer-songwriter Calvi, are the only nominees not to have experienced a percentile increase in double figures.

James Blake was the winner of last year's award, which is judged by a panel of 12 critics, DJs, musicians and other industry figures.

Other recent winners have included Alt-J, The xx, Speech Debelle and PJ Harvey, the only act to have received the award twice.

Coverage of the prize will be broadcast on More 4 and Channel 4 from 21:30 GMT.