Arlo Parks Bags 2021 Mercury Prize

Arlo Parks, an indie-soul singer has won the 2021 Mercury Prize for her debut album, Collapsed In Sunbeams.

According to the Judges , she’s a“singular voice” who “demonstrates how to be quietly strong in a world of extrovert noise”.

The 21-year-old who was left speechless by her victory beat the likes of Wolf Alice, Celeste and Mogwai to scoop the prize at a ceremony in Hammersmith, London.

Parks is the first Mercury Prize winner to be born in the 21st Century.

“It took a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get here,” she said, after regaining her composure on stage. “There were moments where I wasn’t sure whether I would make it through – but I am here today, so thank you very much.”

Collapsed In Sunbeams was released in January, reaching number three in the charts, and sold up to 43,000 copies to date.

The £25,000 Mercury Prize, given to the best British or Irish album of the past 12 months, is now in its 30th year.

Previous winners include era-defining records such as Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, Pulp’s Different Class and Dave’s Psychodrama.

This year’s list of nominees included chart-topping records by Celeste and Wolf Alice, alongside more left-field albums by jazz saxophonist Nubya Garcia and electronic composer Hannah Peel.

Ten of the 12 shortlisted albums were debuts, while four were instrumental or partly instrumental – reflecting changing listening habits during the pandemic.

Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, known professionally as Arlo Parks, is a British singer-songwriter and poet.

S.S/BBC