Little Simz wins 2022 Mercury Prize

First awarded in 1992, the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year celebrates the best of British and Irish music across a range of contemporary music genres.

Little Simz edged 11 other finalists to collect the trophy and a cheque for £25 000 (about $28 000).

Released on 3 September 2021 by Age 101 Music and AWAL, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is Little Simz’s fourth album and winner of the best album of 2021 by Exclaim! and BBC Radio 6 Music.

The artist told The Guardian that the project explores “being this introverted person that has all these crazy thoughts and ideas and theories in my head and not always feeling like I’m able to express it if it’s not through my art.”

Little Simz, a 2021 BET Hip Hop Award winner who also made IMPALA’s 100 Artists to Watch earlier this year, said she was “very overwhelmed and grateful.”

Asked about other nominees, who included Harry Styles, Sam Fender and Kojey Radical, as she accepted the award, Little Simz said: “We all made incredible albums. We all changed people’s lives with our music, and that’s the most important thing.”

The judging panel called the winning album an “accomplished and complex yet entirely accessible… the work of someone striving constantly to push herself.”

The panel added: “It deals with themes both personal and political while putting them against music that is as sophisticated as it is varied. The Mercury Prize is all about shining a light on albums of lasting value and real artistry. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert has both.”

Born Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, Little Simz is also behind a host of EPs and mixtapes.

She joins the likes of British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks and British-Ugandan artist Michael Kiwanuka who have picked up the laurel in previous years.