Nine months after his surprise death from cancer, David Bowie is tipped to take this year’s Mercury Music Prize-one of the most prestigious United Kingdom recording-industry accolades-at an awards ceremony in London on Thursday night.
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“Shout out to my mum”.
The grime star’s mum and dad were his guests of honour at the event at Hammersmith Apollo and were spotted dancing during his performances.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a grime revolution”.
He said the panel decided that “if Bowie was looking down” he would want Skepta to win.
“This is music to make sense of our unsettling times – heartfelt, angry, thoughtful and thrilling”, the Mercury jury said in a statement announcing the 12 shortlisted albums. “He asked at one point, “You know I have a demo of that song, would you find it helpful to listen to that?’ I said ‘Yeah, maybe” [laughs]”. “Not just in music”.
“We could have never imagined we’d be here nominated amongst some of the people that are nominated today”.
The legendary singer, who passed away in January, was the bookies’ favourite to win the gong for his album Blackstar, which was released two days before his death.
He said: “Every artist should be just striving to put out the best work that they can do because anything can happen”.
Though the Mercury can ostensibly be awarded to artists in any genre, the list of nominees this year tipped toward rock (Bowie, The 1975 and Radiohead), soul (Kiwanuka and Mvula) and grime (Skepta and Kano). I was actually going to quit music that day, that was one of the sickest things ever.
Actor Michael C Hall, who plays the character Thomas Newton in the musical Lazarus, made famous by Bowie in his 1975 movie The Man Who Fell To Earth, performed tonight.
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Previous Mercury winners who include PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal and The XX.
