Mercury Prize: Rapper Little Simz wins album of the year award

London rapper Little Simz has won the Mercury Prize, for the champion British oregon Irish medium of the past 12 months.

The 28-year-old took the £25,000 grant for her 4th medium Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a hip-hop coming-of-age communicative delivered with a cinematic sweep.

She received the trophy astatine a ceremonial successful London connected Tuesday. The different nominees included Self Esteem, Wet Leg, Harry Styles, Sam Fender and Gwenno.

Little Simz tin adhd the Mercury to the Brit Award she won earlier this year.

That was for champion newcomer, contempt the information she released her debut medium 7 years ago.

But she has grown successful stature and acclaim with each release, and was besides nominated for the Mercury for her past LP, Grey Area, successful 2019.

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert reached fig 4 successful the UK medium illustration erstwhile it was released a twelvemonth ago, and topped a BBC News "poll of polls", which combined the results of 30 critics' end-of-year lists for 2021.

Her appearances astatine the Reading and Leeds festivals implicit the summertime besides cemented her presumption arsenic a crowd-pleasing main signifier performer.

She is the 31st victor of the Mercury Prize, 1 of the astir prestigious awards successful music. Singer-songwriter Arlo Parks won past year, portion different caller holders see Michael Kiwanuka, Dave and Wolf Alice.

Contrary to the title, Little Simz is bursting with assurance connected her 4th album, which takes you connected a travel done her household inheritance and creator struggles implicit a funky, orchestral marque of hip-hop.

On Little Q, she raps from the position of her cousin, who was stabbed successful the thorax successful South London. The moving I Love You / I Hate You, meanwhile, is addressed to the begetter who abandoned her erstwhile she was 11. "Never thought my genitor would springiness maine my archetypal heartbreak," she observes.

The star's laid-back transportation balances the sadness with empathy and understanding, and the euphony pulses with an unstoppable beingness force.

Tuesday's ceremony, which featured performances from 11 of the 12 nominated acts, took spot astir six weeks aboriginal than planned, aft it was postponed astatine the past infinitesimal owed to the decease of the Queen.

Last month, respective of the artists had already arrived and rehearsed for the show, scheduled to instrumentality spot connected 8 September, erstwhile quality broke of the Queen's death.

The afloat database of Mercury Prize nominated albums: