MERCURY Prize winner Speech Debelle is heading to Scotland for one of her first gigs since scooping the prestigious music award.
Rapper Debelle, 26, who was the surprise winner of the Barclaycard-sponsored music event earlier this week, has just announced she will be performing at The Arches in Glasgow on October 1.
Her debut album, Speech Therapy, was just released in May this year, but the Londoner, who has already garnered a large cult following, beat off strong competition from Scots rockers Glasvegas, Kasabian and favourites for the award Florence and the Machine.
And following her triumphant performance at the award ceremony this week her album is now all set to go platinum and fire the female hip-hop artist into superstar status.
Mercury music prize judges described Debelle’s album as “a remarkable new voice in British hip-hop, tough, warm and reflective, wonderfully supple rhymes and beautifully subtle music”.
All about the album
After walking off with the Mercury prize and a cheque for £20,000 Debelle, real name Corynne Elliot, said: “If you believe in something and you think you can do it, you can
“I feel so good – it feels better than I imagined. It means a lot to me because it’s an award judges give solely on the strength of the album.
“There’s a lot of music that sounds the same, all day on the radio. Hopefully people will hear this album and realise they don’t have to make music that sounds the same – they can make music that sounds good.”
Debelle is the first female winner of the competition in seven years since Ms Dynamite picked up the trophy in 2002.
Her new single Spinnin is the fifth track to be released from her award-winning album and is being widely tipped to top the charts next week.
Speech Debelle is appearing at The Arches, Argyle Street, Glasgow on October 1, in what is her only performance north of the border this year.
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