London-born singer Skepta wins the 25th Mercury prize fr his album Konnichiwa

The north London-born singer and grime artist Skepta has won the 25th Mercury Prize, the UK's most prestigious music award. He won the award and the £25,000 prize for his fourth studio album Konnichiwa and the ceremony was held at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.
The album was released on Skepta's Boy Better Know record label which he had co-founded with his brother JME in 2005 and it was described by industry figures as "confident, funny, clever, scary, personal and political".
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 16 September 2016.

He beat the bookies' favourite, David Bowie, who would have become the first posthumous winner of the prize for his album Blackstar.
The other artists who were vying for the prize were (i) Radiohead for A Moon Shaped Pool - the fifth time the band had been nominated (ii) Laura Mvula for The Dreaming (iii) Bat For Lashes for The Bride (iv) The 1975 for I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (v) Making Time by Jamie Woon (vi) Made In The Manor by Kano (vii) Love & Hate by Michael Kiwanuka (viii) Adore Life by the Savages (ix) Channel The Spirits by The Comet Is Coming (x) Anohni for Hopelessness.
A Bowie tribute was planned for the ceremony that would feature a performance of his track Lazarus by Dexter star Michael C Hall, who is set to launch a Bowie stage production in London next month. Incidentally, the Mercury Prize was established in 1992.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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David Bowie succumbs to his 18-month battle against cancer

#davidbowie David Bowie is no more – he has passed away after an 18-month battle with cancer. This has been confirmed by his son on Twitter. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. Bowie had released his 29th album, called Blackstar, on Friday 8 January - it coincided with his 69th birthday.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 11 January 2016.

The album has seven songs, including one called Lazarus which starts with the lyrics: "Look up here, I'm in heaven, I've got scars that can't be seen, I've got drama, can't be stolen, everybody knows me now."
David Bowie was born as David Jones in post-war Brixton, south London, and had kicked off his music career in the R&B boom of the early Sixties. It was in 1969 that he made his first appearance in the charts with Space Oddity.
He made a surprise comeback in 2013 when he suddenly released a new single on his 66th birthday with an album out just weeks later, his first for 10 years. He was awarded a Grammy lifetime achievement award in February 2006 and his final performance on stage was later that year when he sang alongside Alicia Keys at the Black Ball in New York.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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