London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Aug 10, 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
Street justice isn’t pretty but how else do you deal with this kind of insanity? Sometimes someone needs to standup and say something
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign U.S.-brokered accord at White House outlining transit link via southern Armenia
Barcelona Resolves Captaincy Issue with Marc-André ter Stegen
US Justice Department Seeks Release of Epstein and Maxwell Grand Jury Exhibits Amid Legal and Victim Challenges
Trump Urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Resign Over Alleged Chinese Business Ties
Scotland’s First Minister Meets Trump Amid Visit Highlighting Whisky Tariffs, Gaza Crisis and Heritage Links
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
×