London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 17, 2025

Mercury prize 2021: Arlo Parks wins for Collapsed in Sunbeams

Mercury prize 2021: Arlo Parks wins for Collapsed in Sunbeams

21-year-old singer-songwriter adds to Brit award win earlier in the year

Arlo Parks has won the 2021 Mercury prize, awarded to the year’s most outstanding British album, for her debut Collapsed in Sunbeams.

Presenting the award, judge Annie MacManus said: “We chose an artist with a singular voice who uses lyrics of remarkable beauty to confront complex themes of mental health and sexuality, and connects deeply with her generation as she does so.”

Parks, 21, thanked her family and her team, saying: “It took a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get here, and there were moments where I wasn’t sure I would make it though, so thank you very much.” She wins £25,000.

The singer-songwriter was born in London and is of west African and French heritage. Her album’s intimate and highly empathic songcraft confronts depression (Black Dog, Hope), queer sexuality (Green Eyes, Eugene) and relationship strife throughout, in pithy and vivid character studies. “That sense of rawness is what people are gravitating to”, she told the Guardian in 2020. “I’ve had so many conversations with so many different kinds of people – it’s opened my heart, which is useful when I’m writing songs.”

Collapsed in Sunbeams reached No 3 in the UK charts when it was released in January, and won Parks the British breakthrough award at this year’s Brit awards.

She is one of the youngest ever winners of the prize alongside other early-20s winners such as Arctic Monkeys, Dave and Ms Dynamite, though the youngest ever remains Dizzee Rascal, who was 19 when he won for Boy in Da Corner in 2003.

Ten of the 12 nominated artists were appearing on the shortlist for the first time, ranging from the klezmer-meets-post-punk of septet Black Country, New Road – whose frontman Isaac Wood performed at the ceremony wearing a snorkel – to the clicks, pulsations and cosmic chords of electronic composer Hannah Peel, and idiosyncratic takes on neo-soul from Celeste, Arlo Parks and Sault. Over half the nominees were Black British, with other first time nominees including Ghetts’ atmospheric bildungsroman rap album Conflict of Interest, and Nubya Garcia’s joyous, polyrhythmic jazz odyssey Source, topped by her own stirringly free saxophone lines.

The Scottish post-rock band Mogwai earned their first nomination after 10 studio albums and seven soundtrack recordings, capping a year in which their album As the Love Continues also became their first UK chart-topper. Laura Mvula, performing at the ceremony with a majestic pink keytar, received her third nomination for the 80s-inspired R&B of Pink Noise – only Laura Marling and Radiohead have been nominated more times without winning.

A change in the rules after the controversial barring of Japanese-British pop star Rina Sawayama from 2020’s shortlist meant that non-British artists who have lived in the UK for more than five years are now eligible. This meant Berwyn, a Trinidadian rap and R&B musician who made his mixtape Demotape/Vega in a Romford bedsit, could be nominated in 2021. “I didn’t even have a pair of working headphones,” he told the Guardian, saying his album “just came out of blood, sweat and tears; out of the overwhelming need to get out of the situation” in his “absolute shithole” of a flat. He gave the night’s most riveting performance, of the song Glory solo on piano.

Berwyn at this year’s Mercury ceremony.


Another non-British name snuck on to the shortlist as part of a wider ensemble, and was also the oldest-ever nominee: 80-year-old American jazz artist Pharoah Sanders, who brought wondrous saxophone and vocals to the ambient contemporary classical composition Promises, by UK producer Floating Points with the London Symphony Orchestra also performing.

The only previous winners on the shortlist were Wolf Alice, who won in 2018 with second album Visions of a Life. Their nominated album Blue Weekend reached No 1 when it was released in June, and is one of the year’s most critically acclaimed LPs.

The prize, founded in 1992, aims “to recognise and celebrate artistic achievement, provide a snapshot of the year in music and to help introduce new albums from a range of music genres to a wider audience”.

The judges said the shortlist was “testament to the strength of British music” that the albums came out of a year dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The judging panel included last year’s winner Michael Kiwanuka, Hazel Wilde of 2020 nominees Lanterns on the Lake, jazz star Jamie Cullum and alt-popper Anna Calvi, as well as broadcasters, journalists and music industry figures.

Speaking on BBC 6 Music after her win, Parks said: “​I’m still coming off my little cloud – speechless for now, but very grateful.” Asked what she was most proud of in the album, she said: “The storytelling, the honesty and the humanity; and the fact that I was able to talk about things that were really important to me and affected me, in an honest way.​” She said she wanted to continue to use music “as a tool for personal healing”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
×