Picking up Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards in London,
Sam Fender has challenged the music industry to do more to discover artists from working class backgrounds.
The honour was handed to the North Shields musician by
Elton John, who used his presentation speech to label Fender "one of the greatest lyricists Britain has ever produced".
Recalling his first encounter with Fender's work, Elton said 2019's '
Hypersonic Missiles' had "blew his mind", and the pair have grown close in the years since, with the singer now "a huge friend of my family, he's part of our family".
"What impresses me about Sam so much is his honest outlook on what happens when you grow up in somewhere like North Shields," John added. "His lyrical ability to paint pictures that are grim, uplifting, whatever, makes him one of the greatest lyricists I think Britain has ever produced."
Nodding to the long chart run of Fender's Olivia Dean collaboration '
Rein Me In', he signed off with: "The only thing I'll say is, for Christ's sake, you've been at Number One for 12 weeks now, bugger off!"
Reading from notes on his phone that he admitted were "all spelt wrong", an emotional Fender opened his speech by paying tribute to Jacob Alon, who took home both the Rising Star prize and Best Song Musically and Lyrically for 'Don't Fall Asleep'. Alon's earlier performance, Fender said, was "one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my entire life", adding: "We're just all NPCs living in his world."
Fighting back tears, he went on to speak about his manager Owen Davies, who first spotted him in a pub at 18. "I'm so fucking, so privileged to be doing this," he said, before turning to the wider point that drove much of his speech.
"As an industry, we cannot rely on people like Owen having to walk into the pub to find kids from fucking working class backgrounds," he said. "All the way through '
People Watching', that year, my manager did his job always and looked after us, but he lost both of his parents that year and I just want to thank Owen."
Closing out his speech, he thanked Elton for "bringing me into your family", describing the singer's sons Zachary and Elijah as "the most magnificent fucking polite wonderful kids around".
The pair previously teamed up on '
Talk To You', which appeared on the deluxe edition of Mercury Prize-winning album 'People Watching'. A follow-up record is already in the works, with Fender telling Elton: "I'm going to make another album, I think. I've got a load of other songs, so I want to make another record."
Elsewhere on the night, Thom Yorke and George Michael were both recognised with the Academy Fellowship, while CMAT and Rosalía were also among the winners.
