The show took place tonight (September 24th), with expansive coverage of the virtual ceremony delivered via BBC 4. Sports Team and Charli XCX, nominees for the prestigious Album Of The Year award, both delivered vibrant, compelling performances.

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Solid Ground live at the @vamuseum London. Featuring album artwork portrait by @markeidric. Directed by @rajavirdi. Link in the bio. Musicians: @simonedaleyrichards @elovetales @elodiechousm @cliftondotcom @kwedman_cello @4blax4 @kadzmusic

A post shared by @ michaelkiwanuka on Sep 22, 2020 at 6:20am PDT

The winner of the 2020 Mercury Prize is multi-instrumentalist Michael Kiwanuka for his soulful, sultry album of the same name. To kick-start the new series of his long-standing show, Jools Holland also hosted an intimate conversation with the prize winner Kiwanuka on a special edition of Later…With Jools Holland. 

Other artists nominated for Album of The Year were likes of singer-songwriter Georgia, rock band Lanterns on the Lake, and composers Anna Meredith and Moses Boyd. The complete list of nominated acts for the Mercury Prize can be found here. 

Sports Team’s offering for the virtual ceremony was a vigorous, high-energy rendition of Here’s The Thing. The catchy, satirical track Here’s The Thing comes from Deep Down Happy, Sports Team’s long-awaited, debut album that astounded fans and critics alike following its arrival in April of this year. 

Meanwhile, Charli XCX delivered a stunning performance of her moving track, Visions, live from her home in Los Angeles.

Sports Team took to social media today to share their blinding performance of Here’s The Thing. Posting a clip of frontman Alex Rice singing his heart out to Instagram, Sports Team playfully wrote that there is a “6/1 chance of Alex disgracing himself on the One show tonight.” Receiving over 7,000 likes, the post was a big hit amongst Sports Team fans. 

 

 

 

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6/1 chance of Alex disgracing himself on the One show tonight. Full @mercuryprize performance on YouTube now A post shared by Sports Team (@sportsteam) on Sep 24, 2020 at 4:27am PDT

Charli XCX also took to Instagram to spread the news of her exciting performance. Fans were clearly ecstatic at this news, awarding the post a whopping 89,000 likes.

In celebration of Michael Kiwanuka’s phenomenal win, radio DJ Tom Ravenscroft played KIWANUKA in full on BBC Radio 6 Music from 8pm on September 24th. 

Michael Kiwanuka has also confirmed that he will hit the road in 2021, embarking on an extensive UK and European tour. Tickets for the tour can be found here, and dates for the UK iteration of the tour can be found below:

26/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
27/03 – Bonus Arena – Hull
29/03 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
30/03 – Empress Ballroom – Blackpool
01/04 – Demontford Hall – Leicester
02/04 – Pavilions – Plymouth
03/04 – Brighton Centre – Brighton
05/04 – O2 Academy – Leeds
06/04 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
09/08 – Summer Sessions – Edinburgh
15/09 – O2 Academy – Newcastle
16/09 – Corn Exchange – Cambridge
17/09 – Alexandra Palace – London

An ironic locational pairing, Sports Teams’ performed at Kennington’s world-famous cricket ground, The Oval, in London. The group were also outfitted in a cricket-appropriate colour palette, a playful nod to the gig’s setting. Posting a celebratory photo on Twitter, the band jokingly said of the performance: “First band to play The Oval since The Who in ’72. Same vibe.”

Blaring their anthemic raucous on a small stage directly in the middle of the sweeping stadium, the sound of Camel Crew fills the huge, empty venue to the brim. Playing with the zest and charisma of longtime headliners, Sports Teams’ most recent performance is just a taste of what is to come for these rising stars. As the coronavirus crisis hopefully dissipates with time, and health guidelines permit live gigs again, Sports Team will be playing filled stadiums faster than you can say, Kutcher.

Sports Team shared their high-energy performance on their official YouTube channel, which has already received over 4500 views. The spunky six-piece also posted their performance to Instagram, sharing jokingly to their 35,000 followers: “‘Camel Crew’ was one of the first songs we wrote, always knew we’d wind up playing it to empty stadiums.” Garnering over 5,000 likes and views, the post was warmly received by the band’s ever-growing fanbase. 

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Camel Crew was one of the first songs we wrote, always knew we’d wind up playing it to empty stadiums. That full session from the Oval is up now, link in bio@luxuriousthomas

A post shared by Sports Team (@sportsteam) on Aug 3, 2020 at 9:18am PDT

Make no mistake, Sports Team have been hard at work during lockdown, and have already been creating their second album together. Lead vocalist Alex Rice chatted to NME last month about their next project, mentioning that they had “been in the studio for the past three weeks, cracking on with album two”.

Rice spoke further on the making of Deep Down Happy, revealing that “The last album was born out of playing live shows.” Rice expanded with “being recorded in a block, it was done with us coming back from tour on a ferry, going straight into the studio and trying to get a single out of it. Then we’d be straight back on tour.” 

A sonic experiment following their long-awaited debut album, Rice says their next album is “more about the sound. It’s about the changes of the scene within a song as well. We’re looking at changing the mood in a big way.” Now fans won’t have to wait too long for the indie rock gang to add to their discography! 

Released on the 5th June, Deep Down Happy is nominated for a coveted Mercury Award, and also went head-to-head with none other than Lady Gaga for Number 1 album in the UK Official Charts that month. The euphoric Deep Down Happy is composed of twelve tracks and contains the singles Going Soft, Born Sugar, and Here’s The Thing.

Deep Down Happy is out now.