Debelle jumps on the springboard to success with her 'surprise' Mercury Music prize win

Published on Wednesday 9 September 2009 19:07

THE relatively unknown Speech Debelle, aka London rapper Corynne Elliot, 26, was announced as the "surprise" winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize, on Tuesday night,

There hasn't been a "surprise" winner of the award since Antony & The Johnsons scooped the prize in 2005. But Antony Hegarty, who has made a creative virtue out of being an outsider, already boasted a loyal cult following at the time and his album stood out from the crowd.

Speech Debelle is a completely untested artist who has so far failed to brush the charts with her debut album, Speech Therapy. Her victory is tantamount to the Mercury panel taking a shot in the dark. But is it really a surprise? A win for rank outsiders Led Bib, Sweet Billy Pilgrim or Lisa Hannigan, fulfilling the token jazz/folk nominee roles – now, that would have been a surprise.

Tuesday's result, however, would not have come as a surprise to anyone who had checked the bookies' odds at close of play on the night, by which time Speech Debelle was second in contention only to Florence & The Machine. As everyone knows the favourite never wins, it seems that someone somewhere knew what was about to go down.

Neither was it a surprise to the recipient herself, who calmly explained in her post-victory interview that she had known she could win the award ever since Ms Dynamite triumphed in 2002. Elliot was either pragmatically paying tribute to an inspiration or shrewdly acknowledging how the Mercury game works. And it does feel like a game.

The ostensible aim of the Mercury Music Prize is to honour the best British album released in the preceding 12 months, based on purely musical considerations. Given all the pitfalls of deciding such a thing by committee, the wonder is that past winners PJ Harvey, Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons actually did release the best British album of their respective years.

Of course, it's all just a matter of personal opinion, and there were grumbles that, with their already robust fanbase and album sales, Franz and the Monkeys didn't "need" the win as much as other nominees.

You can't please all the people all of the time (this year, for example, there would have been no pleasing me with such a weak shortlist to pick from). Last year's winners Elbow were generally regarded as worthy recipients – "worthy" being the operative word to describe the music of this band of decent chaps who had grafted for years without any major pat on the back. Their victory felt like the Mercury Music Prize equivalent of a lifetime achievement award – best give it to the old geezers now; we can always resume the habit of rewarding a debut album next year.

Sales of Elbow's album increased by 700 per cent after their win – knowing the prize has that kind of power surely must influence the panel's choice. Who on this year's list would benefit most from the win – the biggest selling debut artist of the year (Florence), an established bunch of indie knuckle-trailers who can headline festivals in their own right (Kasabian) or a woman who has only sold 3,000 copies of her album to date?

One can only guess at the deliberations of the Mercury panel but, given that the shortlist is always a patchwork of genres and styles, it seems fair to presume that they are also casting about for a winner which can proudly represent the UK's fertile music scene and reflect some kudos back on the prize itself.

So if the Mercury is truly meant to embody the state of the British music scene in any given year, it had to go to a female artist in 2009. The majority of major new stars this year have been female singers and there were five albums by women to choose from on the shortlist.

Arguably, the panel opted for one of the weaker contenders – an underwhelming, rather jazz-influenced old school hip-hop album which does not feel like any kind of musical event. But, for Speech Debelle, there could not be a better springboard.

Few people outside of her immediate family and circle of friends had actually heard her album before she was nominated – by the day after her win, Speech Therapy had climbed more than 1,000 places in the Amazon bestsellers chart with sales multiplied by 4,000 per cent. May she go forth and make a better album next time – for which she will not win the Mercury Music Prize.