Created by Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) to enrich Scotland's cultural identity and recognise its diverse musical output, The Scottish Album Of The Year (SAY) Award has been celebrating the most exciting names in contemporary music since 2012.

To mark the tenth anniversary of The SAY Award, we are looking back at the nine previous winners, the albums they submitted and the success they have gone on to receive.

2012: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat for Everything's Getting Older

The first act to win a SAY Award in its debut year was the Scottish musical duo Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat. The pair first worked together on Moffat's former band Arab Strap's 2003 album Monday At The Hug & Pint, on which Wells played piano. Their winning album Everything's Getting Older received glowing reviews all around, including four stars from The List at the time of release.

2013: RM Hubbert for Thirteen Lost & Found

Glasgow-born singer and guitarist RM Hubbert, or 'Hubby', has made a name for himself as both a solo artist and in post-rock band El Hombre Trajeado. He won The SAY Award in 2013 for his second album Thirteen Lost & Found, after which he went on to release a further six albums, including several collaborations with the aforementioned Aidan Moffat.

2014: Young Fathers for Tape Two

Next to be awarded were Edinburgh trio Young Fathers for their second mixtape Tape Two, beating the likes of Chvrches' The Bones Of What You Believe and Biffy Clyro's Opposites. Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham 'G' Hastings first began making music together as teenagers before being signed by LA-based indie label Anticon. Their subsequent album Dead, released in 2014, propelled them onto the UK album charts and won them a Mercury Prize.

2015: Kathryn Joseph for Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I've Spilled

Up against Paolo Nutini's Caustic Love and Belle and Sebastian's Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance, singer-songwriter Kathryn Joseph prevailed with her debut album Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I've Spilled. Originally from Inverness, Joseph released one other critically acclaimed album in 2018, From When I Wake The Want Is.

2016: Anna Meredith for Varmints

The Scottish composer and producer of acoustic and electronic music Anna Meredith MBE won the 2016 SAY Award for her debut album Varmints. At this stage Meredith was already taking the music industry by storm, having performed at BBC Late Night At The Proms and being a Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Since Varmints Meredith has released two more albums, both of which have received critical acclaim, and scored Bo Burnham's 2018 film Eighth Grade and Timothy Greenberg's Netflix show Living With Yourself. In 2019 she was awarded an MBE for Services to Music as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

2017: Sacred Paws for Strike A Match

Glasgow-based band Sacred Paws is made up of guitarist Rachel Aggs and drummer Eilidh Rodgers. Their debut album Strike A Match fused their signature indie-rock and Afro-beat sounds and was recorded in Scottish rock band Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio. Mogwai also made it onto The SAY Award Shortlist in 2016 for their album Atomic.

2018: Young Fathers for Cocoa Sugar

So far in the history of The SAY Award, Young Fathers remain the only act to have produced two winning albums. The 2018 prize was awarded to the then Mercury-winning trio for Cocoa Sugar, their third studio album which centres around themes of polarity and conflict.

2019: Auntie Flo for Radio Highlife

The Glaswegian DJ Auntie Flo, known for his unique 'Afro-futurist' sound, won the 2019 SAY Award for his third studio album Radio Highlife. This was the first record he released with Gilles Peterson's independent label Brownswood Recordings.

2020: Nova for Re-Up

Shaheeda Sinckler, the Leith-based DJ, rapper and producer who goes by Nova Scotia, was not only the youngest recipient of a SAY Award to date, but her album Re-Up was also the first rap/grime album to win. In a true sign of the times, she accepted her award virtually in last year's ceremony after testing positive for Covid-19. Nova's album was Shortlisted alongside the likes of SHHE's self titled album and The Ninth Wave's Infancy.

Submissions for The SAY Award 2021 are open until midnight Thu 22 Jul at sayaward.com.