Little Simz Wins Mercury Prize 2022
Little Simz has won the Mercury Prize, for the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months.
The 28-year-old rapper took the £25,000 award for her fourth album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a hip-hop coming-of-age tale delivered with a cinematic sweep. She told the ceremony in London on Tuesday she was “very overwhelmed and grateful” to receive the honour.
And the star paid tribute to the other nominees, who included Self Esteem, Wet Leg, Harry Styles, Sam Fender and Kojey Radical. “We all made incredible albums,” she said on stage. “We all changed people’s lives with our music, and that’s the most important thing.”
Simz told BBC News after the ceremony: “I just pray I can do what I can and contribute what I can to the landscape of music and society in whatever way, shape or form, and just try and speak for those that don’t have a voice and use my platform and my gift for the greater good.”
In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to her family and her co-writer and producer Inflo, “There were times in the studio when I didn’t know if I was going to finish this record,” she told the audience at the Hammersmith Apollo. “I was feeling all the emotions and really going through it. He stuck by me and pushed me to deliver this album for you guys.”
The Mercury Prize judges said: “This accomplished and complex yet entirely accessible album is the work of someone striving constantly to push herself.
“It deals with themes both personal and political while putting them against music that is as sophisticated as it is varied. The Mercury Prize is all about shining a light on albums of lasting value and real artistry. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert has both.”
The full list of Mercury Prize nominated albums:
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – For All Our Days That Tear The Heart
Joy Crookes – Skin
Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under
Gwenno – Tresor
Kojey Radical – Reason To Smile
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Fergus McCreadie – Forest Floor
Nova Twins – Supernova
Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure
Harry Styles – Harry’s House
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Yard Act – The Overload