James Blake headed for Top 75 after Mercury Prize win
Singer / songwriter James Blake sees a surge in albums sales after winning the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize.
Last night (Wednesday, October 30) James Blake fought off tough competition from the likes of David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys and Rudimental to take home the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize. The 25 year old from Enfield, north London, scooped the £20,000 cash prize for his second album, Overgrown, which was praised by the judging panel who called it "inventive, poetic and poignant".
"This is the first award I've ever won apart from a tennis trophy I won when I was 12," Blake told the BBC after the ceremony.
As well as the cash prize, one of the benefits of winning the Mercury Prize can be an increase in album sales. Since being shortlisted seven weeks ago, sales of Overgrown, have increased by 18%, and, according to the Official Charts Company’s sales data up to midnight last night, in the hour and 45 minutes following James Blake’s win, the album shot up from being outside the Top 200 to Number 89 on today’s sales flash. If this momentum continues, Overgrown is likely to re-enter the Top 75 of Sunday’s Official Albums Chart.
2012’s winning album, Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave, almost doubled its sales between being nominated and the awards ceremony taking place. It has sold nearly 278,000 copies to date and is fast approaching Platinum status (300,000 copies).
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