South London-based musician Sampha took home the coveted Mercury Prize on Thursday night (September 14), which is one of the U.K.’s most prestigious musical awards.
He collected the honor for his latest studio album, Process. During the ceremony, Sampha performed his wildly emotional single, “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” a song he wrote after his mother passed away from cancer.
“It’s taken me quite a while to feel like I was emotionally stable enough to write my own record and people have just been incredibly lovely and understanding,” he told The Guardian. “It feels like a weight off my shoulders.”
Sampha expressed his gratitude in a recent Instagram post as well, writing, “Absolute craziness…Still on cloud 9. Thank you so much to everyone for the support. Biggest love from the bottom of my heart.”
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The 28-year-old multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Drake and Solange was one of five South London artists nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize. Other nominees for this year’s prize included alt-J, Glass Animals, Stormzy, The xx and Ed Sheeran.
Last year’s award went to British grime rapper Skepta.
