Articles by Jane Bradley

Entertainment

The Mercury Prize nominee following in footsteps of Arlo Parks as winner of prestigious award

Fife musician Jacob Alon has been announced as the winner of the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year Award 2025, the first Scottish recipient of the prestigious award since its launch in 2015. Alon who this year released their debut studio album In Limerence, was shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Prize Album of the Year. The BBC Introducing Artist of the Year award is presented to an artist who, with the support of BBC Introducing, a platform that supports and promotes unsigned, undiscovered, and emerging musical artists, has made a significant impact that year and is on the path to stardom. Musicians can upload their music, which is then considered for airplay on local and national BBC Radio shows. Previous winners of the award, known or tipping the next big breakthrough act, include Olivia Dean, Tom Grennan, Myles Smith, Arlo Parks, Nia Archives, Declan McKenna, and Self Esteem. Known for their free-spirited folk music, Scottish singer-songwriter Alon, 24, began uploading their music to the BBC Introducing uploader in 2023 and saw early support from BBC Introducing Scotland, performing at BBC Introducing Live at Tenement Trail that year. In 2024, Alon played for BBC Introducing at The Lower Third and performed a special live session for BBC Introducing in Scotland. They also performed on Later…with Jools Holland and on the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury 2025 and have also been named one of 6 Music’s Artist of the Year 2025 and embarked on their first UK headline tour. Alon said: “It's an honour to be awarded the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year Award, and to join a list of people that I really admire, it's very surreal. I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if BBC Introducing hadn’t given me a chance right at the start with a live recording of one of my songs. It really does feel like it kickstarted this whole journey and I'm so grateful and owe so much to the team for supporting me, and also so many of my friends and people that I love. “I hope this gives hope to anyone that doesn't necessarily believe they can do this, because I didn’t believe I could do this at one point. And I hope this might someone else to take a chance and upload something they've made to BBC Introducing. The world will only be a better place with more art in it, and I couldn't think of a more welcoming and inclusive platform.” Kelly Betts, editor of BBC Introducing said: “I’m thrilled to announce Jacob Alon as our 2025 Introducing Artist of the Year and the first Scottish artist to receive the award in its ten-year history. BBC Introducing have supported Jacob since 2023, and it’s been a joy to witness their artistic evolution and growth. They’re a remarkable talent and we’re excited to see where their journey takes them next. “This award not only celebrates an exceptional artist, but also represents our commitment to nurturing, spotlighting and championing the next generation of artists. Congratulations to Jacob, we have no doubts that this is just the beginning of a great career.”

Entertainment

Arts diary: When did it become reasonable to pay £100s for a hotel room and a moment for Muriel Spark

It feels like just five minutes since we were last talking about it, but visitor woes of a double whammy of Edinburgh's Festivals and major stadium concerts has raised its ugly head again. This summer, gigs by Oasis and AC/DC during the festival season sent hotel prices soaring. Now, the release of tickets for a one-night-only Murrayfield show from Bon Jovi in August next year looks to be doing the same. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has called for a “more sensible approach” to the planning and timing of big events in Scotland’s capital after a Scotsman investigation found some hotel rates have already soared by more than 50 per cent for the weekend of the Bon Jovi gig in August, compared with other weekends during the festival period. The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh's West End - close to where the gig is taking place - is charging £1,048 for a two-night stay in a twin room for the weekend of the concert. The previous weekend, when the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has already begun, but Edinburgh is not hosting a major concert, the same room is on sale for just £698 for two nights. Of course, while it is all very well to call for the authorities to take control of clashing events to keep prices lower, the elephant in the room here is what the accommodation providers are choosing to do. I'm just not sure when it became normalised to pay hundreds of pounds a night for a very ordinary hotel room. I can remember when my daughter was around a year old, little over a decade ago now, my husband and I splashed out £250 for a single night away at Gleneagles, arguably Scotland's plushest five-star hotel. Subscribe today to the Scotsman’s Arts newsletter We hadn't had any sleep in months: we had no local childcare. This less-than-24-hours available to us to use while her grandparents were visiting was our one chance for a childfree treat. We thought we were being insanely decadent, but then, this was our entire holiday spend for a year, so we splurged. Now, we could barely get a Holiday Inn in Stirling for that price. During the Edinburgh festivals? Forget it. £250 wouldn't buy us a flea-ridden mattress at the bottom of someone's garden. The same goes for concert tickets themselves, which according to some studies, have risen by 80 per cent since 2021. Dynamic pricing has a lot to answer for. It's just greed. People will pay it, so they can charge it. The authorities, even if they wanted to, can't do a lot about it. We need an entire societal shift. A moment for Muriel Renowned Edinburgh-born author Muriel Spark has had a bit of a moment over the past week or so. Plans for a memorial to her - the first ever for a woman to be erected in her home city's Princes Street Gardens, despite the existence of a number of statues of famous animals - have been announced, while her best-known novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, is to be turned into a play which will headline the 20th anniversary programme of the National Theatre of Scotland. Despite being born in Edinburgh, Ms Spark actually spent little time in Scotland. She left aged 19 when she met and married Sydney Oswald Spark and the couple moved to Southern Rhodesia. She then moved to London in 1944 when the marriage broke up shortly after the birth of their son, Robin, later relocated to New York and died 62 years later in Italy. Her Edinburgh notoriety arguably comes from Jean Brodie herself, the schoolteacher of Morningside who was "in her prime". The NTS production, which stars GLOW actress Gayle Rankin in the title role, promises to be a hit when it tours Scotland next year.