Sam Fender has been announced as the winner of the Brits critics’ choice award, the industry-voted prize previously won by Adele, Sam Smith and Ellie Goulding.
The prize is presented ahead of the Brit awards on 20 February. Figures in the media and music industry are asked to nominate artists they believe will enjoy future success but who haven’t yet scored a UK Top 40 album. Fender was nominated on a shortlist alongside R&B singer Mahalia and singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi.
Fender specialises in energetic, glossy garage-rock topped with his soulful vocals, the lyrics tending towards social commentary about masculinity, depression and vice; songs such as Poundshop Kardashians and Millennial lament the lack of options for Britain’s youth.
He has built a sizeable fanbase already through a string of nine singles in 2017 and 2018, along with a heavy touring schedule. He said he was “truly humbled” to win, adding: “We’ve played literally hundreds of shows this year, and we’re going to go even harder in 2019 … To everyone who’s taken a punt on me so far, thank you.”
The prize is seen as a predictor of future success, with other previous winners including Florence + the Machine and Emeli Sandé. The winner in 2017, Rag’n’Bone Man, scored the fastest-selling debut album of the decade and the second biggest-selling album of 2017, after Ed Sheeran; last year’s winner Jorja Smith reached the Top 3 and earned a Mercury prize nomination. Though 2016’s Jack Garratt failed to become a household name, and follow-up albums from former winners James Bay and Tom Odell both had short-lived runs in the charts this year.
