The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Sampha felt like he was ‘dreaming’ after his win
Singer songwriter scoops prize ahead of Ed Sheeran
Singer songwriter Sampha said he “felt like I’m dreaming” as he was announced as the winner of the Mercury Prize for his album Process.
The south London musician beat off competition from Ed Sheeran and Stormzy to take home the UK’S most prestigious music award.
He received his prize from actor Idris Elba and told the crowd: “I feel like I’m dreaming. This is incredible.
“Thank you to the judges for thinking that my album is good enough.”
Written and recorded after his mother Binty died of cancer, one track on the album, the ballad (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano, talks about the piano in his childhood home, which his mother taught him to play as a child.
“At the time... it was quite important for me to write music,” Sampha told the BBC.
“It helped me through everything. “So it’s this weird kind of document but it’s nice, I guess, because I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”
Suitably, he dedicated the prize to both his parents.
Sampha Sissay boasts a long list of prestigious collaborators, working with the likes of Drake, Frank Ocean and Solange in the past. Process is his debut solo album, however.
The winner was chosen by a panel of judges that included Marcus Mumford, Jessie Ware, Ella Eyre, Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and jazz musician Jamie Cullum.
They said the deliberation was the prize’s “longest ever”.
Initial favourites were Kate Tempest for Let Them Eat Chaos and Glass Animals with How To Be A Human Being.