Music prizes don’t come much bigger than the Mercury Music Award, and nominees have been sharing their excitement.
Laura Mvula has been shortlisted for the second time, this year for The Dreaming Room, and was at the ceremony at the Hammersmith Apollo, talking about what it meant to her.
She said: “The first time in 2013 or something was like ‘what the hell’ somebody get me out of here. Now it’s like the sickest thing.
“It is so exciting when you consider some of the really difficult things happening in the world today and how that knocks on to the arts. This is really precious, like think about Skepta, think about Kano, it’s huge. A chance to honour David Bowie – it’s just an amazing moment.”
David Bowie has a posthumous nomination for his final album Blackstar, alongside Kano, Skepta, Bat For Lashes, Radiohead, Jamie Woon, Michael Kiwanuka, The Comet Is Coming, Anohni, Savages and The 1975.
Singer-songwriter Jamie said: “I love the Hammersmith Apollo, I’ve always wanted to play there. Shame I only get to play one but you know.
“Obviously you always check for the Mercury every year and it’s quite weird to see yourself nominated. But you hope if you make good music then good things will happen.”
During his performance of Shutdown, Skepta, the self-proclaimed King of grime, said “Kano, we did it bro”, a reference to his and Kano’s nominations and the resurgence their genre has seen since it was last recognised by the Mercury Prize in 2003 when Dizzee Rascal won for his album Boy In Da Corner.
An exclusively recorded version of Radiohead’s Present Tense played on screens as the band are currently on a world tour and were unable to make the ceremony.
