Harvey's Album Sales Soar

Her Mercury Prize triumph has seen an increase in sales.

Sales of PJ Harvey's critically-acclaimed album Let England Shake have soared just hours after she won the coveted Mercury Prize.

The British singer/songwriter became the first musician to scoop the prestigious honor twice when she was named the winner at a ceremony in London on Tuesday evening.

Within hours of her triumph - which added to her 2001 win for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - record store bosses were reporting a surge in sales of Harvey's war-themed concept album and predicting it will re-enter the charts this weekend.

A spokesman for U.K. music chain HMV says, "It's somewhat ironic that PJ Harvey's album has been acclaimed by the Mercury judges almost 10 years to the day that she picked up her first award.

"Her achievement then was almost entirely overshadowed by the tragic events that were unfolding in New York (on 9/11), and needless to say, her album then didn't enjoy the usual lifts that a Mercury winner can expect.

"It's going to be a different story now, and HMV is already seeing a surge in demand for downloads of her album Let England Shake via its hmvdigital platform.

"With the additional prospect of a sharp rise in CD sales via stores and online over the next few days and weekend - possibly as much as a 10-fold increase given that her album starts from a low sales base - PJ Harvey can expect to re-enter the upper reaches of the charts come next week."

The Mercury Prize is awarded annually to the most influential British album of the previous 12 months.