“I’m a ★”
Congratulations are due to Skepta after he picked up the gong for his album Konnichiwa tonight.
Though ★ reached the final six, the North London-born grime star was pronounced the winner of the Album of the Year at the 2016 Mercury Prize awards ceremony, which was broadcast live from the Eventim Apollo in London. (Scene of Ziggy’s last stand in 1973.)
Michael C. Hall, Henry Hey and the Lazarus house band performed a moving rendition of Lazarus earlier in the evening (in front of a backdrop of the video of Bowie’s own version), which you can watch here. They returned for an even more emotionally charged second version later on.
Pulp front man, Jarvis Cocker, presented the award, but not before he explained how close the vote was…
“OK I have the result here. (Holds up envelope) But, I’ve got to tell you a little bit of a story before I let you know whose name is inside here. OK?
Now, myself and my fellow jurors, about four months ago we started off with 223 albums. We had to listen to those and that was whittled down to the twelve that you’ve seen performances from tonight. But in the end, the winner came down to a contest between two black stars.
And we as a jury decided (cries of “Blackstar”, not dissimilar to the “me, me, me” at the same venue in 1973), that if David Bowie was looking down on the Hammersmith Apollo tonight…and let’s face it maybe he is, we’ve seen traces of his influence in many of the bands you’ve seen perform here tonight…if he was looking down at the Hammersmith Apollo tonight, he would want the 2016 Hyundai Mercury Prize to go to, (dramatic pause) Skepta.”
Skepta ended his acceptance speech and began his final performance with this: “Rest in peace David Bowie. Rest in peace Amy Winehouse.”
You can catch the full thing on the BBC iPlayer here.
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