Mercury Prize - And the winner is...

The second week of September dawns and the eyes of the music world begin to focus on London's Grosvenor Hotel, and the judging panel of the Mercury Prize, who lay somewhere within battling out the final moments of this year's big decision.

The twelve artists who made this year's shortlist have become all the more easy to find, as Bat For Lashes talks to Observer Music Monthly, and The Horrors begin a month of shortlisted musicians presenting on 6 Music.

The bookies have closed in on Florence and the Machine as a leading contender, but as so often with the Mercury Prize we all have our favourites. Radio 2's Jeremy Vine thinks the unique skills of second time nominee Bat For Lashes deserve the nod, while Roots Manuva is happy to highlight the merits of fellow rapper Speech Debelle.

NME's Emily Mackay is one of many to heap praise on critic pleasers Glasvegas, but it's the likes of previous nominee Zoe Rahman and Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody who direct our gaze on the lesser known, but no less accomplished charms of The Invisible and Lisa Hannigan respectively.

Elsewhere on our now overflowing Mercury Prize website 6 Music news' Rodrigo Davies has taken a more in depth look at 2009's final twelve and those budding radio presenters The Horrors have stopped off at The Hub to record a session.

And it's at bbc.co.uk/mercuryprize that you will be able to follow all the exciting events on Tuesday night. Guy Garvey relives his achievement with Elbow at last year's award from 7pm on 6 Music, before Steve Lamacq takes over with a live broadcast from the ceremony. Lauren Laverne joins us at 10pm as we provide live web coverage of BBC Two's award show, while Rodrigo Davies will be keeping us up to date on all the night's developments via Twitter.