Singer James Blake beats Bowie to win Mercury Prize
Singer James Blake has beaten veteran artist David Bowie to win this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize for his second album Overgrown, as he picks up his first ever award for music.
The 25-year-old singer triumphed over favourites Laura Mvula and Disclosure to be announced the winner of the £20,000 at a ceremony at the Roundhouse, in Camden, London.
He has beaten critics’ favourite Bowie and previous winners Arctic Monkeys, confessing it is his first award since winning a tennis trophy as a 12-year-old schoolboy.
He hailed the result as “very strange”, saying Bowie was “an example” to young artists like him.
Blake, the classically trained son of a session musician, beat significant odds to secure the prize, coming in at 21/1 according to William Hill and being accidentally announced as fellow singer James Blunt earlier in the evening.
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