Speech Debelle Wins Mercury
She beats Florence and Kasabian…
Speech Debelle has won the Mercury Prize for 2009 with her debut album Speech Therapy.
The South London rapper beat a host of better known names to take the statue- and the £20,000 prize money- including Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and La Roux.
At the ceremony in Central London Speech told reporters: "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 Mercury since 2002- when Miss Dynamite won.
It’s also a win for the independent label Big Dada- which is part of Ninja Tune. The past two albums to win the award were released by Universal Records.
