Little Simz bags Best Solo Act From The UK at the BandLab NME Awards 2022

Boris Johnson’s has met with oil giants to trash out new terms for North Sea exploration as he delayed the launch of the UK’s new “energy supply strategy”.

Olivia Dean has told NME that she’s currently finishing up work on her highly anticipated debut album, and that it should be out before the end of this year.The singer-songwriter, who released her EP ‘Growth’ last year, was speaking on the red carpet at the O2 Academy Brixton in London last night (March 2) ahead of the BandLab NME Awards 2022. Watch the full interview above.Asked about her future plans, Dean said: “I’m just finishing my debut album at the moment.

Sam Fender and his live band provided one of the highlights of the BandLab NME Awards 2022 with their wide-ranging and joyful interview in the winners’ room – check it out above.Fender and his bandmates were speaking after he won Best Album In The World and Best Album By A UK Artist at last night’s ceremony at the O2 Academy Brixton in London (March 2). He also performed ‘Seventeen Going Under’ live to kick off the event.Joined by his bandmates Dean Thompson, Tom Ungerer, Joe Atkinson, Drew Michael and Johnny Davis, Fender – who started the interview by exchanging Limmy impressions with his band – was asked for his thoughts on winning Best Album In The World.“I mean it’s a bit too far, that, really.

Jehnny Beth has told NME what to expect of her upcoming new music, teasing that it’s both “fun” and “punk”.The Savages vocalist was speaking on the red carpet at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton last night (March 2), where she presented CHVRCHES and Robert Smith with the award for Best Song By A UK Artist.Discussing her plans for the rest of 2022 and beyond, Beth said: “I’ve been acting in a few movies in France, so that’s carrying on, and films are coming out.”She added: “And then I’ve done some new music, and that will come out pretty soon, I hope.”Asked what we can expect in terms of the stylistic direction of the new music, Beth said: “It’s fun, it’s punk, but electronic as well.”Beth’s last new music came in the summer of 2021 when she released a collaborative album with Primal Scream‘s Bobby Gillespie called ‘Utopian Ashes’.

Gallery: Singer, inspiration, icon: Learn what makes Carole King so special at 80. . . (BANG Showbiz)Lorde – ‘Solar Power’ BEST SONG BY A UK ARTIST CHVRCHES Robert Smith – ‘How Not To Drown’ BEST LIVE ACT: SUPPORTED BY GROLSCH Rina Sawayama BEST FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD Life Is Beautiful BEST FESTIVAL IN THE UK: SUPPORTED BY WHITE CLAW Reading Leeds BEST SMALL FESTIVAL Wide Awake BEST FESTIVAL HEADLINER Wolf Alice BEST BAND IN THE WORLD Fontaines DC BEST BAND FROM THE UK: SUPPORTED BY PIZZA EXPRESS Bring Me The Horizon BEST SOLO ACT IN THE WORLD Burna Boy BEST SOLO ACT FROM THE UK Little Simz BEST NEW ACT IN THE WORLD: SUPPORTED BY CANO WATER Olivia Rodrigo BEST NEW ACT FROM THE UK: SUPPORTED BY MUSIC VENUE TRUST BERWYN BEST MIXTAPE Holly Humberstone – ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’ BEST COLLABORATION Griff x Sigrid – ‘Head On Fire’ BEST PRODUCER: SUPPORTED BY BANDLAB Arca Fred again.

BandLab NME Awards 2022, Robert Smith gave NME the lowdown of The Cure‘s next album and exclusively told us the title. Watch our full video interview with Smith above.Having long teased the band’s long-awaited “merciless” new record – having told us that two new albums were on the way back at the last NME Awards back in 2020 – Smith tonight revealed that one of them would be “real very soon”, as well as sharing more about its sister record and his anticipated solo album.“So I’ve been working on two Cure albums, and one of them is finished,” Smith told NME. “Unfortunately, it’s the second one that’s finished.

BandLab NME Awards 2022 award winners Bring Me The Horizon are due to stage their own festival in Malta in May – an event they’ve said will be “like Fyre Festival but with better sandwiches”.The Sheffield band were speaking to NME from the winner’s room after picking up the trophy for Best Band From The UK Supported By Pizza Express.Bring Me’s Malta festival, announced last November, will take place from May 26-30 and feature a full live show and an exclusive retrospective set from the band.Discussing what to expect from the event, drummer Mat Nicholls promised “bingo with Jordan Fish [BMTH keys player]. It’s called ‘Bringo’.”“It’s like Fyre Festival but with better sandwiches,” frontman Oli Sykes added.The festival’s line-up, handpicked by the band, includes Bullet For My Valentine, Beartooth, PVRIS, Motionless In White, Spiritbox, Nova Twins and Wargasm.There will also be a host of club nights, pool party takeovers and boat parties.

Life Is Beautiful returned last year with headliners Tame Impala, Green Day and Billie Eilish.During the festival, Eilish used her time on stage to debut three tracks from her album ‘Happier Than Ever’ for the first time, and told the crowd it felt like “a dream I’ve had many, many times in the last year… I can’t tell you how excited I am to be with you guys and to see all of your beautiful faces.”You can see NME’s photos from the 2021 festival here.

Bring Me The Horizon closed the BandLab NME Awards 2022 tonight (March 2) with a storming six-song set which the band dedicated to the people of Ukraine.Taking to the O2 Academy Brixton stage for their ceremony-ending set, BMTH, who were proudly displaying the Ukrainian flag on their bass drum skin, launched into ‘Can You Feel My Heart’.They then played ‘Parasite Eve’ (where they were joined by two dancers in yellow hazmat suits), ‘Die4U’, ‘Mantra’ and ‘1×1’, which they performed with help from Nova Twins.Prior to their set-closing track ‘Throne’, BMTH frontman Oli Sykes paid tribute to the Ukrainian people following last week’s Russian invasion.“I guess it’s better being here in a room full of influential people: they need to use their voice every single day until this crisis is over,” he told the room.“If Kyiv does not survive, international peace will not survive,” he added, before the band tore into ‘Throne’.Earlier in the night, the Sheffield five-piece collected the award for Best Band From The UK Supported By Pizza Express. Elsewhere, the likes of Sam Fender, Lorde, Fontaines D.C.

the BandLab NME Awards 2022 for her dazzling acting debut as Alana Kane in Licorice Pizza.The rock star-turned-actress beat out Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonathan Majors, Riz Ahmed and Thomasin McKenzie for the prize.Last year, she told NME that she had “no movie star training” before taking on the role in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s film.“I jumped in at the deep end,” Alana said. “I had no experience. I asked Paul if I should and he was like, ‘No, don’t do anything.

Wolf Alice have been crowned the Best Festival Headliner at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The London band beat Billie Eilish, Liam Gallagher, Megan Thee Stallion and Tyler, The Creator to the title.Wolf Alice made their first post-lockdown festival appearance at Latitude Festival last summer, where they played a headline slot at Henham Park. Their performance saw them deliver a roaring rendition of ‘The Last Man On Earth’, as well as a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’.In a review of their set at Latitude, NME wrote: “Wolf Alice might not be old guard yet, but their Friday night headlining performance makes their future incredibly clear – legends of British music who top bills on the regular.”Wolf Alice were up for four other nominations at the BandLab NME Awards 2022, including Best Band In The World and Best Album In The World.

Taylor Swift has won Best Reissue at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 for the re-imagining of her 2012 pivotal album, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’.She beat out OutKast (‘ATLiens)’, Nirvana (‘Nevermind’), Radiohead (‘Kid Amnesiae’), and The Beatles (‘Let It Be’) for the prize.In a four-star review, NME said the album’s production is “a little sharper” than the original 2012 release, “with instrumentation being brought further into focus”, adding that Swift’s voice had matured “significantly in the intervening decade” since she released ‘Red’.The new version also featured fresh additions like the poignant charity single ‘Ronan’, ‘Better Man’ as song that was originally written for Little Big Town in 2016, and ‘Babe’, which long-time collaborator, producer, and this year’s Songwriter Award winner Jack Antonoff adds brass and ‘1989’-style shine to.In 2020, Swift picked up the NME award for Best Solo Act In The World, sharing that she was “honoured and very excited” about the award.“I want to say thank you so much to anyone who writes about music, who blogs about music, who tweets about music, who cares about music,” she said. “But most of all, I want to say thank you to the fans because they are the only reason that I get to do this.”She added: “Thank you to all of the artists that are here tonight, I am such a fan of all of you.

Nia Archives has won Best Producer Supported By BandLab at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The producer, on the rise for her fresh and vibrant jungle sound, beat out Arca, Fred Again.., India Jordan, and Travis Barker for this year’s award.“It’s an enormous role, but one thing all of tonight’s nominees have in common is they are all dedicated to their craft,” presenter Tiffany Calver said of the job of a producer.“I fucking love jungle music,” Archives said while accepting the award at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, adding that she dedicates the win to her little brother.“It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can do whatever you like and you can make something of yourself,” she added.Nia Archives was born in Bradford and raised in Manchester on a steady diet of reggae, rocksteady and old-school jungle. She made the cut for the NME 100 2022, which lists a hundred essential emerging artists to keep an eye on this year, for her “dancefloor-ready nu-jazz” that packs in “every one of her diverse influences.”The DJ and vocalist’s innovative take on drum ’n’ bass can be heard on her remix of fellow nominee PinkPantheress’ track ‘Nineteen’, which was featured on her ‘To Hell With It’ remix album.

Foals’ ‘Wake Me Up’ has won Best Music Video at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 this evening (March 2).‘Wake Me Up’ beat out music videos by Billie Eilish (‘Happier Than Ever’), Lil Nas X (‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’), Taylor Swift (‘All Too Well – The Short Film’) and Wet Leg (‘Chaise Longue’) for the win.“We just want to say thank you so much to this guy Dave East who directed it, everyone who danced in it and everyone who loves our band,” Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis said on the podium while collecting the award.“Thank you so much,” he added. “We keep on going, keep on going.”Watch the winning video, directed by Dave East, here:‘Wake Me Up’ was the first single from the British rock band’s upcoming seventh studio album ‘Life Is Yours’, which will be their first as a trio and is due for release June 17.

Burna Boy has been honoured at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 with the title of Best Solo Act In The World.The Nigerian star beat Arlo Parks, Billie Eilish, Dave, Little Simz, Pyra, Rina Sawayama, Sam Fender, Tkay Maidza and The Weeknd to pick up the accolade.Aitch and Big Zuu presented the award to Burna Boy, who accepted the trophy virtually. “Thank you guys very much for this.

Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’ has won Best Song In The World at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The title track of the New Zealand pop star’s latest album, ‘Solar Power’ beat out nine other nominated songs by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, The Kid LAROI, BTS and more.The award for Best Song In The World was presented by Natalie Imbruglia and Bastille’s Dan Smith.Lorde accepted the honour in appropriately summery ‘Solar Power’ fashion – via a video filmed from a pool. Watch her full speech above.“Hi, NME! I’ve heard I’ve just been awarded the best song in the world and I’m really grateful for that,” she said.Lorde also gave props to her fellow nominees, particularly Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg: “Big fan of all the songs in this category, especially ‘Chaise Longue’ by Wet Leg.

Table Manners has won Best Podcast at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The show, hosted by singer Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie, beat out Disgraceland, Grounded With Louis Theroux, Songs To Live By and Wheel Of Misfortune for the win.“Thank you so much,” the Wares said in a statement of their win, who praised the “amazing guests” of Table Manners for the podcast’s success.“This is the first NME award I’ve ever been up for, I’ve only had four fucking albums and it takes my 70-year-old mother,” added Jessie.Launched in 2017 and now in its 13th season, Table Manners becomes the second podcast to snag a win at the NME Awards. The category, introduced in 2020, was last won by George The Poet’s Have You Heard George’s Podcast?.The BandLab NME Awards 2022 returns to the O2 Academy Brixton and is co-hosted by Daisy May Cooper and Lady Leshurr.The ongoing ceremony, which celebrates the most brilliant people in music and pop culture right, saw performances from Sam Fender, Griff and Sigrid and more.

CHVRCHES and Robert Smith treated the BandLab NME Awards 2022 this evening (March 2) to a stunning performance of ‘Asking For A Friend’, their collaboration ‘How Not To Drown’ and The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’.The Scottish trio and Smith’s performance on the O2 Academy Brixton stage midway through the Awards marked the first time that they had all performed ‘How Not To Drown’ live together, which earlier in the night won the Best Song By A UK Artist prize.The collaboration appeared on CHVRCHES’ 2021 album ‘Screen Violence’, as did the band’s set opener ‘Asking For A Friend’.After performing ‘Asking For A Friend’, frontwoman Lauren Mayberry then introduced Smith on stage. Smith displayed a sticker of the Ukrainian flag on his guitar in a show of support to the nation as they then delivered a storming rendition of ‘How Not To Drown’.“The NME were really nice to us and gave us a miniature gig during their ceremony,” Mayberry said of their performance, before introducing ‘Just Like Heaven’ by saying: “I’m sure you’ll know this one.” Mayberry and Smith then shared vocals on the Cure classic.Also performing at the ongoing BandLab NME Awards 2022 are BERWYN, Rina Sawayama and Bring Me The Horizon.

Olivia Rodrigo has won Best New Act In The World Supported By CanO Water at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The US singer-songwriter came out on top among the international slate of nominees, which included Bad Boy Chiller Crew, BERWYN, Bree Runway, Wet Leg and Yard Act. Dublin band Inhaler, Nigerian singer Tems, King Stingray from Australia and Shye of Singapore were also nominated in the same category.The gong was presented by It’s A Sin actor Nathaniel Curtis and Love Island presenter Laura Whitmore.

Bring Me The Horizon have won Best Band From The UK Supported by Pizza Express at the BandLab NME Awards 2022.The Sheffield band were up against CHVRCHES, Glass Animals, Nova Twins and Wolf Alice for the title.While collecting the award on stage from Ivorian Doll and Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes said: “We didn’t think we were gonna win owt, so I don’t know what to say!He added: “Our first album got two out of 10 in NME, so… follow your dreams!”Bring Me The Horizon are also up for two other categories tonight at the BandLab NME Awards 2022: Best Band In The World and Best Live Act Supported by Grolsch.BMTH are also expected to close out the ceremony with a multi-song set, which follows on from their memorable outing at the NME Awards in 2016 when they smashed through Coldplay’s table during their performance.Speaking to NME earlier about their return to the Awards, frontman Oli Sykes said: “To be honest we’re surprised we’ve even been asked back at all! What a huge honour it is to be asked to close the prestigious NME Awards show, we’re literally buzzing.”Taking place now (March 2) at the O2 Academy Brixton and co-hosted by Daisy May Cooper and Lady Leshurr, the BandLab NME Awards 2022 opened with a performance by Sam Fender and also saw joint performances by Griff and Sigrid, and CHVRCHES and Robert Smith.Check back for the latest news, interviews, winners and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.