Sam Fender has been announced as the winner of the 2019 BRITS Critics Choice award.
Pipping the prize from the also-nominated Mahalia and Lewis Capaldi, Mr Fender follows the likes of Adele, Florence + The Machine, Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith and more in scooping the award – the first winner announced for next year’s BRIT Awards in the process.
Speaking about the win, Sam said: “I am truly humbled to win the BRITs Critics’ Choice award. Being nominated was crazy enough, never mind winning it. I’m so grateful to everyone back home for believing, and to my band and team for all their hard work. We’ve played literally hundreds of shows this year, and we’re going to go even harder in 2019. Most importantly, a big shout to my fans. I’ve met a lot of you over the last few years and it’s truly an honour to get up and play night after night to such a wonderful bunch of people. To everyone who’s taken a punt on me so far, thank you. Here’s to next year!”
He’ll round out the year supporting Blossoms in Manchester and London, before returning to those very cities in 2019 to play his biggest headline shows to date at Gorilla in Manchester on February 25th and Electric Brixton in London on February 28th respectively.
You can find Sam in The Hype List 2019 – tipping the new names set to make their mark on the year ahead. Catch the full chat and more in this month’s magazine.
The winner of The #BRITs Critics’ Choice Award 2019 is…. @samfendermusic! Huge congratulations! ?? pic.twitter.com/aXKJRWwrRR
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) December 7, 2018