Lianne La Havas

The recent renaissance in British grime music has been reflected in 2015’s Mobo Awards nominations, with JME and Krept and Konan scooping four nominations each.

Grime artists account for 27 nominations in total across all available categories. London duo Krept And Konan, who scored a Top Ten hit with ‘Freak of the Week’ earlier in 2015, are nominated in four categories including Best Male, Best Song, Best Hip Hop and Best Album, the latter for their album The Long Way Home, which entered the UK charts at Number 2 back in July.

JME, the co-founder of the Boy Better Know record label and a big artist in his own right, is nominated in three of the same categories as Krept And Konan, except he’s up for Best Grime rather than Best Hip Hop.

Continue reading: JME, Krept And Konan And FKA Twigs Lead MOBO Awards Nominations

Prince has officially announced his band's presence in the UK with a press conference and live performance held in the home of British soul singer Lianne La Havas, followed by a surprise gig at Camden's Electric Ballroom. The funk singer has been playing with his new band - the three-piece 3rdEyeGirl - to promote their upcoming album Plectrum Electrum, including the new single 'PretzelBodyLogic' which has been described by Prince as "funk 'n' roll."

After A Press Conference, Prince Played A Secret Gig In Camden.

Lianne La Havas became friends with the musician after meeting him in the US. "He heard my music, somehow, two years ago and decided he wanted to meet me!" she said. The singer said she offered up her room as a joke when she heard he was headed to the UK. "I've never had [a global megastar] play in my house, but Prince has been here before. A few months ago. [He's] very respectful, which is good. He's tidy and just lovely."

Continue reading: Prince Kicks Off UK Tour With Secret Gig And Unusual Press Conference [Video]

Prime Minister David Cameron has promoted young British musicians by giving all the G8 leaders a 10-track USB stick containing songs from Alt-J, Conor Maynard, Laura Mvula and Gabrielle Aplin with a very prominent theme of love.

Perhaps the Tory party leader is attempting to up his "cool" factor or seem down with the kids - the voters of tomorrow - having also recently been seen at Oxfordshire's Cornbury Festival and regularly sharing his music taste with reporters. The ten songs weren't selected by the busy PM however, rather the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) assembled the tracklist presented to each of the G8 leaders on a USB stick.

Cameron Taking Some Time Out Of Parliament To Soak Up The Sun At Oxfordshire's Cornbury Music Festival.

Continue reading: David Cameron Gives Romantic Mixtape To G8 Leaders, Who's On It?

Mercury Music Prize winners Alt-J could well be adding an Ivor Novello award to their collection of gongs, NME announced today (April 17, 2013). The band have been nominated in the Best Contemporary Song category for their song Fitzpleasure, alongside Plan B’s Ill Manors and The Maccabees Pelican. Alt J won last year’s Mercury Music Prize for their debut album An Awesome Wave. The album has also been nominated in the Album Award category, alongside Beon Howard’s Every Kingdom and Lianne La Havas’ Is Your Love Big Enough?

The awards ceremony celebrates songwriting ability and the remainder of the categories are Best Song Musically and Lyrically, Best Contemporary Song, PRS for Music Most Performed Work, Best Original Film Score and Best Television Soundtrack.

The full list of nominees is below. The 58th annual Ivor Novello awards will take place on May 16th, 2013 at London’s Grosvenor House.

Continue reading: Will Alt J Add An Ivor Novello Award To Their Mercury Gong?

The Mercury Prize is set to be awarded tomorrow (1st Nov. 2012), and true to form and tradition, many of the artists in the nomination lists are ones that you may never have heard, or even heard of. As such, we thought it'd be useful to give you a brief breakdown of three acts topping the list of favourites, Alt-J, Richard Hawley and Jessie Ware. 

Jessie Ware's album 'Devotion' is nominated and 3rd in the favourites. Ware used to be a vocalist with drum and base act SBTRKT. Some of that synthy influence can be heard in this album, but the vocals hark back to the '80s and early '90s, though with her own twee stamp. 

Richard Hawley comes in second. He was originally in the Britpop band Longpigs and also played with Pulp for a few years before launching his solo career. He's nominated for his whimsically titled album 'Standing at the Sky's Edge'. Despite that whimsy, he has described this album as 'angry', to the Guardian. The guitars and vocals are verging on gritty, but angry? Not quite. 

Continue reading: A Brief Run Down Of The Mercury Prize Favourites

This Thursday (November 1, 2012), the winner of the Mercury Music will be announced. As a precursor to the official event, Spotify have taken a look at the streaming figures for all of the nominees, on their online streaming service and Alt-J have attracted more listeners than any of the other Mercury Music Prize nominees.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Mercury judging panel will have the same taste as Spotify’s listeners and Alt-J face fierce competition, even if they have pretty much been tipped as likely winners since the list was announced. Jessie Ware’s another newcomer with a strong chance, as is Lianne La Havas. Plan B and Richard Hawley are among the more experienced artists in there that also stand a strong chance. You should never count on the obvious choice when it comes to the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize, after all. Remember the year that Dizzee Rascal won? How many of you saw that one coming?

Even Alt-J aren’t counting their chickens just yet. The band’s drummer Thom Green placed his expectations of the band winning the prize at a lowly 8.3% and admitted “We’d been tipped to win before we’d even been nominated, so the pressure was on.” A spokesperson for Spotify, Will Hope, said “We can't predict who the judges will pick to win this Thursday's Mercury Prize, but if it were up to music fans on Spotify, Alt-J would be the band picking up the award. Ben Howard is a close second based on recent streaming habits we've seen. We wish all nominees the best of luck!”

Continue reading: Is It A Sign? Spotify Users Vote Alt-J Favourites For Mercury Music Prize

Plan B and Emeli Sande have both received 5 nominations for the 2012 Mobo awards, making them the joint leading nominees, reports The Telegraph.

Having already been nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize for Ill Manors, Plan B’s hugely successful album, which shares its name with the film in which he starred and directed, is making waves on the MOBO scene. Nominations include Best Male, Best Hip-hop/Grime act, Best Video, Best Song and Best Album: a successful haul for Ben Drew, who has enjoyed a successful renaissance of sorts, since he reinvented his style from U.K grime to retro-chic. Sande, who performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, is nominated for Best R&B/Soul Act, Best Video for My Kind Of Love, Best Song for Next To Me, and Best Album for her debut Our Version of Events – which was snubbed by the Mercury Prize judging panel.

Elsewhere, Rita Ora and Labrinth are both nominated for four awards each, while Mercury Prize nominees Jessie Ware, Lianne La Havas and Michael Kiwanuka are also all nominated. Last year Jessie J dominated the event, which will take place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on November 3. She won four MOBO awards, while US R&B act Boyz II Men were recognised with a special award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.