{"id":46100,"date":"2026-05-22T21:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/46100\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T21:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:56:11","slug":"sam-fender-calls-on-the-music-industry-to-find-more-voices-from-working-class-backgrounds-as-elton-john-hails-him-as-one-of-the-greatest-lyricists-britain-has-ever-produced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/46100\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Fender calls on the music industry to find more voices from working class backgrounds, as Elton John hails him as \u201cone of the greatest lyricists Britain has ever produced\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Fender<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0called on the music industry to find more fresh voices from working class backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The North Shields singer-songwriter\u00a0was\u00a0the recipient of the Songwriter of the Year prize at the Ivor Novello Awards<\/a> in London last night (May 21),\u00a0and was presented the prize by Elton John<\/a>, who described him\u00a0as \u201done\u00a0of the greatest lyricists Britain has ever produced\u201d.<\/p>\n

Elton said that he had been a fan of Fender\u2019s since his debut album \u2018Hypersonic Missiles\u2019 in 2019, which he said \u201cblew his mind\u201d, and he explained that since then, Fender has become \u201ca huge friend of my family, he\u2019s part of our family\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat impresses me about Sam so much is his honest outlook on what happens when you grow\u00a0up in\u00a0somewhere like North Shields,\u201d John continued. \u201cHis lyrical ability to paint pictures that are grim, uplifting, whatever, makes him one of the greatest lyricists\u00a0I think Britain\u00a0has ever produced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I\u2019ll say is, for Christ\u2019s sake, you\u2019ve been at Number One for\u00a012 weeks\u00a0now, bugger off!\u201d he concluded, referring to\u00a0the ongoing success of his single \u2018Rein Me In\u2019 with Olivia Dean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An emotional Fender then took to the stage\u00a0and read notes from his phone that were \u201call spelt wrong\u201d, taking time to congratulate\u00a0Jacob Alon<\/a>, who won the Rising Star award at the ceremony, as well as Best Song Musically and Lyrically for \u2018Don\u2019t Fall Asleep\u2019. \u201cWe\u2019re just all NPCs living in their world,\u201d Fender said, describing their performance earlier in the night as \u201cone of the greatest things I\u2019ve ever seen in my entire life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so fucking, so privileged to be doing this,\u201d he went on to say, choking back tears as he remembered his manager Owen Davies \u201cwalking into that pub that day when I was 18\u201d while he was playing a set.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an industry, we cannot rely on people like Owen having to walk into the pub to find kids from fucking\u00a0working class\u00a0backgrounds,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the way\u00a0through \u2018People Watching<\/a>\u2019, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ended by thanking Elton for \u201cbringing me into your family\u201d and called his sons Zachary and Elijah \u201cthe most magnificent fucking polite wonderful kids around\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0Fender and John released \u2018Talk\u00a0To\u00a0You\u2019<\/a>,\u00a0a song included\u00a0on\u00a0the deluxe version of \u2018People Watching\u2019,\u00a0which won the\u00a0Mercury Prize<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n

Fender also told Elton last year that he had already started thinking about the follow-up to \u2018People Watching\u2019<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m going to make another album, I think,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a load of other songs, so I want to make another record.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a four-star review of \u2018People Watching\u2019<\/a>,\u00a0NME\u00a0wrote: \u201cReflective, analytical and vulnerable, \u2018People Watching\u2019 does exactly what the title may suggest: takes stock of the characters, friends and loved ones who have made Fender the person he is today. He approaches each track with sensitivity as he looks back on his life so far \u2013 perhaps even with an inkling of guilt \u2013 and contemplates who he may be next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other big winners at the Ivor Novellos included\u00a0Thom Yorke<\/a>, who was handed the Academy Fellowship alongside\u00a0George Michael<\/a>, as well as\u00a0CMAT<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rosal\u00eda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Fender\u00a0has\u00a0called on the music industry to find more fresh voices from working class backgrounds. The North Shields…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,6475],"class_list":["post-46100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-indie"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116620466010483979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}