Entertainers Who Turned Down Major Awards

Gorillaz Says No To The Mercury Music Prize

Image Credit: Joseph Okpako / Contributor

The Gorillaz may be a bunch of cartoons, but they’re cartoons with ethics. The famed, genre-bending rap-rock group withdrew from their Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2001. The band’s fictional bassist, depicted by a shaggy-haired lizard man, said receiving the award would be like “carrying a dead albatross ‘round your neck for eternity.” Bizarre.

Much like you’d expect, the Mercury Prize ceremony went on unscathed, just with fewer nominees. No one was going to make much of a fuss about a cartoon throwing a hissy fit. PJ Harvey ended up pulling in the award, which went largely unnoticed because the ceremony was on September 11, 2001, and most of us were pretty busy worrying about real-world stuff instead of cartoon drama.