And Ed Sheeran didn’t!
Sampha has won the 2017 Mercury Prize for his debut album Process.
The R&B artist first came to attention at the beginning of this decade working with FKA twigs, SBTRKT and Jessie Ware, later going on to collaborate with Drake, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Solange. It was only until this February, however, that he finally released a solo album of his own.
The album beat out other Mercury nominees including Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer, J-Hus’s Common Sense, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ and Sampha’s Young Turks labelmates and fellow Mercury Prize winners The XX for their album I See You.
Stream Process and check out the entire shortlist of nominees below.
Mercury Prize 2017 nominees
Alt-J – Relaxer
The Big Moon – Love in the 4th Dimension
Blossoms – Blossoms
Loyle Carner – Yesterday’s Gone
Dinosaur – Together, As One
Glass Animals – How to Be a Human Being
J Hus – Common Sense
Sampha – Process
Ed Sheeran – ÷
Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer
Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos
The xx – I See You
Read next: Time to Process: Sampha on his debut album and what comes next
